The Game
by LovinLife4ever
Summary: Troy is the new guy in town and Sharpay is the girl everybody wants. Simple enough, right? Wrong. Sharpay has a rule that she can only date a guys for five days, and then moves on to the next guy. Can Troy convince her to stick around? Troypay NOW COMPLET
1. The trailer

**You guys tell me what you think? I have a few chapters written already and I think that this will work out okay. **

**He was the New Guy in Town**

_Shows Troy getting out of a car an looking around_

_Shows Troy slapping hands with Chad_

_Chad whistles and stares at Sharpay._ "Check out the talent."

"Who's she?"

"Sharpay Evans... don't bother though, she is totally untouchable."

"Why?"

"At your old school was there that one girl who any guy would cut off his own arm to date?"

"Duh."

"Yeah, well imagine that time ten."

**He Learned the Rules**

_Shows Troy and Chad on front of a computer_

_Troy squints and looks at the screen_ "What exactly is this?"

"This is Sharpay's website. She's had this game going with Shay Thompson since freshmen year."

_Shows a freshmen Sharpay and Shay talking._

_Shay smiles and sticks her hand out._ "So whoever has the most five day relationships by the end of senior year wins?"

_Sharpay takes Shay's hand and shakes it. _"Deal."

**And he Found his Place at East High**

_Shows Troy bumping into Gabriella_

"Oh my god. I am such a klutz."

"No problem, I'm Troy by the way."

"Gabriella... nice to meet you."

_Shows Troy in the Cafeteria talking to Gabriella_

"So do you know Sharpay?"

"No... but I know about her. She's too busy playing stupid games to do anything worthwhile in real life."

_Sharpay stands on the lunch table. _"I'd like to announce the annual Shay&Pay party"

_Gabriella turns to Troy._ "Isn't it stupid that everyone goes crazy over something so pointless?"

_Troy shrugs_ "I don't know... I think it could be fun."

**But when he Becomes a Part of the Game...**

_Shows Sharpay kissing Troy on the lips_

_Shows Troy and Sharpay laughing together_ "You should totally come to the Shay&Pay party."

_Shows Chad looking surprised as Troy kisses Sharpay on the cheek._

"Dude... you have your five days."

"Yeah, all I have to do now is convince her to keep me around."

_Shows Sharpay smiling at Troy. _"You know, I've never met anyone like you before."

_Shows Troy and Sharpay singing on stage_

_Shows Troy at Sharpay's door. _"Hey... do you mind if I be completely honest with you?"

_Sharpay shrugs._ "Go ahead."

"I think I just might be falling in love with you."

**There's only one question**

_Show Sharpay on the phone__with Shay_"I want to quit the game... it just doesn't feel right anymore."

"Well remember, if you forfeit, your brother's place at Kelvin Center disappears."

_Shows a blond boy getting arrested next to a burning building_

_Flashes to that same boy talking to a therapist_

_Shows the boy talking on a phone_ "Shar... the people here are really helping me, I think I'm getting better."

_Shows Sharpay and Troy kissing_

"Troy, I... I have to go." _She runs off_

"Sharpay! Wait!"

_Shows Gabriella screaming at Sharpay_

"STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH TROY! I KNOW IT MAY BE HARD FOR YOU UNDERSTAND WITH THAT TINY LITTLE BRAIN OF YOURS BUT I ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT HIM!"

_Shows Sharpay running out of the theater in tears_

**Will he get played?**

_Shows Sharpay talking to Shay at her party_

"Why are you doing this to me? I thought we were friends!"

_Shay smirks._ "Because, Pay, I don't like what this guy is doing to you. He's turning you soft."

_Shows Troy and Sharpay bumping into Gabriella._

"I just wanted to congratulate you Troy."

_Troy's face softens._ "Really?"

"Yeah... you're not half as depressed as all the other guys usually are on day five. I mean, knowing that Sharpay could just leave you any moment must be-"

"Let's get out of here Troy." _Sharpay grabs Troy's hand and walks away quickly._

_Shows Sharpay passing by Shay when Shay grabs her by the arm. _"So who's it going to be... your brother or your boyfriend?"

_Flashed to Sharpay sitting outside her party with Troy._

_Sharpay is crying_ "Face it Troy! You were just part of the game!"

"I don't believe that."

**Starring Vanessa Hudgens**

_Shows Gabriella wearing Troy's letterman jacket_

**Lucas Grabeel**

_Shows Ryan hugging Sharpay_

**Suzie Pollard**

_Shows Shay and Sharpay walking through the mall holding tons of bags and laughing_

**Zac Efron**

_Shows Troy shooting baskets and missing_

**And Ashley Tisdale**

_Shows Sharpay singing on stage while Kelsi plays the piano_

**LovinLife4Ever presents...**

**The Game**

_Shows Sharpay walking up to Troy while he's shooting hoops._

_Troy turns to Sharpay_ "Why are you here?"

"Because I've been playing games for too long."

_Shows Troy and Sharpay kissing_

**Coming soon to a computer near you... **

**So that's the trailer... tell me what you think. I'm trying to be a little more organized in the way that I write so that I won't go all crazy and get off track. I think that this will turn out well though. So tune in soon. I think I'll post a chapter today so look out for that, kay?**


	2. The beginning

**Okay... so this chapter is sort of kind of like setting up the rest of the story. The first part is the homepage of Sharpay and her friend Shay's website. And the second part is dort of how the game got started. Troy gets thrown into the mix next chapter. So tell me what you think, okay?**

Sharpay's POV

**Hey welcome to the ShayPay website.**

**Judging by the fact that you're here, you're probably in on the game.**

**If you're not, Sharpay Evans and Shay Thompson have had this game going since the beginning of freshmen year. Whoever has the most one week relationships by the end of the year wins. If you want to figure out who is currently winning, just go to the scoreboard link. It's kind of a long story how this whole thing got stated but here are the rules:**

**Obviously, come graduation in 2009, the final score will be tallied, and he winner will be announced. Whoever gets the most five day relationships with guys from East or West High from freshmen years until then wins. **

**NEVER TALK ABOUT THE GAME!! If you talk about the game your chances of being a part of it are terminated.**

**Every in-school relationship is part of the game. No exceptions. Keep that in mind if you ever want to play.**

**Different guys are worth different amounts of points... this isn't some kind of a scoring system, but honestly, the captain of the football team is going to be more points than the guy who doesn't bathe for months in a row. Guys are rated according to social status, extra curriculars, kissability, and whether or not they're taken (hint: guys who are taken are worth more)**

**WE ARE NOT TRYING O STEAL YOUR BOYFRIENDS!! If your boyfriend leaves you to be a part of the game, that's between you and him. And honestly, if he'd dump you, just to get one sex free week of fake dating one of us, it's obvious that you guys had issues that have nothing to do with us.**

**Shay and Sharpay are not whoring themselves out for the game, due to an incident involving a rumor, sex will not be allowed during the game. (For the record, Shay was one-hundred percent against this rule)**

**Relationships in the game are not real relationships, they're just for fun. Shay and Sharpay reserve the right to see other people on the side as long as it doesn't interfere with the game.**

**That being said, because of a few cases where the guys involved with the game have mistaken the game with real dating, Shay and Sharpay won't do any real dating with guys from their own schools.**

**Shay and Sharpay have concluded that they aren't going to meet their soul mates while playing the game, and that isn't the purpose of the game, so those of you bent of finding true love are better of leaving this website now.**

**Shay and Sharpay don't take bribes. They take gifts, but not bribes.**

**YOU ONLY GET ONE CHANCE TO BE A PART OF THE GAME!! NO ACCEPTIONS!!**

**Hearts have been broken in the game, hearts will be broken in the game, it's bound to happen, so just get used to it and accept it if you want to play**

**Well now that you know the rules and you know what you're getting yourself into, let the games begin...**

Sharpay's POV

"Mom, why do I have to go to this dumb party?" I asked, fumbling with the silky material on my cherry red dress. My mother had spent hours making Yvette take my measurements for it, then she sent them off to Europe to some designer who made the dress for me. This morning I found the newly finished dress sitting on my bed... along with my very first customized pushup bra. The dress showed so much skin that after seeing it, I skipped lunch and ran around the block twice. Needless to say that I wasn't exactly comfortable wearing it "I have more important things to worry about."

"Darling, image is everything, and in a public high school, you are going to need one hell of an image if you want to make something of yourself." My mother said as she powdered her face. We were at the entrance of a formal party held by one of my mom's friends at the country club. "And look at yourself! With those looks and that dress, your image could not be better, think of this as... practice for freshmen year."

Inwardly I wondered why it took a pair of five inch stilettos in order for my image to be perfect, but by now, I knew better than to say it out loud. "But mom, I think that there's more to it than that! I mea, remember what happened to Ryan-"

"I thought we already established that we do no talk about your brother." She said, her voice shifting to an icy tone for a moment. Then her face went back to its normal expression, she cleared her throat and spoke again. "Besides, you shouldn't be all alone, Harold Thompson's little girl is going to be a freshmen at West High too."

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm going to East High."

"Details are not important." My mother said, starting to move forward toward the entrance. "The point is that you're not alone."

I crossed my arms as I fought my way through the mass of women in evening dresses and men in penguin suits, and found an empty table to sit at. Once I was there, I surveyed the crowd. There were a few boys about my age standing in the corner, all of them looking my way. One nodded at me, and as I had seen my mother do about a billion times, I nodded back at the boys coyly, then looked off in the opposite direction, making sure to flip my hair in the process. Honestly, inside, I thought it was sort of fun to flirt with guys. I mean, it didn't mean anything, but hey, I was fourteen, it was a new rush. Even though I wasn't looking, I could tell that he was still looking my way. After all, I had been trained by the best.

"Not bad." I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to see a girl, about my age, with blonde hair standing by my chair. "But if you really wanted to get their attention, you should have bent over a little to 'fix our heel strap'. Subtle leg action always gets you a second look."

I smiled at the girl, she was wearing a black dress, somewhat similar to my own. "I now, but I am very selective on who I give leg action to. Frankly, when I look at them, I see cute guys... but they strike me as myspace nerds."

The girl quickly glanced back. "Good call." She said, with a look of disgust on her face. She stuck out her hand. "Shay Thompson, the best thing to hit West High."

I took her hand. "Sharpay Evans. East High's equivalent of you."

Shay smirked. "Okay, so now that we have that established, I say we set our sights on something slightly more challenging." Shay looked behind her.

I craned my neck to see what she was looking at. My eyes widened when I saw this completely gorgeous guy sitting over by the bar sipping water. "Are you crazy!? That guy is like, sixteen!"

Shay giggled. "We both look at least sixteen, and face it, he can't resist us. Unless of course... you're scared or something"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm Angela Evans's daughter, I live for his kind of stuff. I'm just surprised you picked such an advanced target."

"Well if you're so good, then go ahead, show me how it's done." She said, gesturing towards him.

"Watch and learn then." I said, getting up. I got up and walked over to the bar, grabbing my clutch purse on the way.

"Vodka tonic." I said, to the bartender. He gave me a skeptical look. I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, you're actually thinking of carding me? Fine." I angrily dug through my clutch. "I swear, I have been a member here since before they had they even built in the botanical garden, and never has anyone carded me. It's pretty damn gutsy of you to think that you can just get away with this when the owner of this place is sitting at the table across from me just itching to ask how the new service is. And I'll only be too glad to tell him that-"

"No, Miss, it's quite fine, here's your drink." He said, turns out that all through my spiel he'd been making my drink.

I smiled at him acidly and took the drink. "Glad we could see eye to eye."

The guy, who had by now, been watching the entire conversation, smiled down at me. "Nicely done. Now may I ask, how old are you really?"

"Fourteen." I said simply, I figured faking my age wouldn't really do anything but freak him out when he figured out my age. I pushed the drink at him. "For you. I figured that was what you were sitting here all this time for."

"Cute and psychic." He said with a smirk.

"You'll find some way to repay me." I said sarcastically.

"I'm Kevin by the way, what school do you go to?"

"I'm Sharpay and I start East High next week."

"What a small world, so do I." He took a sip and smiled at me.

"Well then, you can do me a favor. You see my friend Shay and I are doing this little contest thing... sort of a bet. We're seeing who can show up on the first day with the cutest guy..."

"And you want me to show up with you." He said.

"You know, just smile and wave, she goes to West High so she'll never know if you totally ignore me the rest of the day."

He smiled and looked me over, I could tell he was weighing his options. "What kind of Junior would be if I didn't help the freshmen? In fact I'll do you one better, you have my full services for an entire week."

"One week?" I asked. Wow. A guy who could legally drive was asking me to go out with him for a week. "I think I can manage that."

"Well, then I'll see you next week Sharpay." He said. "Thanks for the drink."

"My pleasure." I said, going back to the table.

"So, did you get anywhere?" Shay asked.

"Shay. I just had the most amazing idea ever." I said. I sat down and explained it to her, I had no clue exactly what was going to happen next, but I knew that this was going to be big.

**So... did you like it?**


	3. The New Guy

**SPRING BREAK '08! WOO! Okay, so I'm going out of town on thursday so I'm going to try to update again either today or tomorrow. So this is still sort of the beginning of the story, but I promise that the Troy pay is coming. It's sort of part two of the last chapter, only it kind of shows more about Troy. So enjoy...**

**Note: They word ShayPay will be used a lot during this story, it isn't a pairing, it just refers to basically anything that Shay and Sharpay do together.**

**Troy's POV**

I pressed my head against the car window, trying to drown out the sound of my father singing along to Johnny Cash on the radio. I can't believe that my dad moved us to Albuquerque. Hell, I can't even spell Albuquerque. And worse, he was going to be the captain of my high school basketball team! Now not only was I the new kid, but I'd also be the coach's son. At my old school I was just starting to fit in, people were starting to acknowledge my existence, and now I had to uproot and start all over again. It had taken me three and a half years to get where I was and now I had to start all over again.

"Hey Troy, maybe now since you're trying out for the basketball team, we can practice together... sort f like bonding. You know, we haven't been doing much bonding ever since I announced that I got this job." My father looked over at me with a gigantic, overly optimistic smile on his face.

I didn't turn to look at him. The two day drive from Arizona to Albuquerque had basically taken away all my conversational skills. "I'm not trying out for the basketball team." I said ominously.

"Troy! You're a great player! You can't just throw that away! Now just because I didn't force you to play back in Flagstaff and I don't force you to play here doesn't mean that you shouldn't at least try to be on the team." My father paused, as if he was contemplating whether or not to say something. "Is this about that girl...? Jessica, was it? No. Vanessa. Well, is it about Vanessa?"

My head popped up at the name Vanessa. "This isn't about Vanessa, dad." I stated, trying to sound very aggravated. I guess when thinking about Vanessa, the words 'bad timing' came to mind. I'd finally gotten a girlfriend and my dad decided that it was time to move across the country. It wasn't like we were anything special. But we were together for almost a month.

"I never meant for this job to come between you two." He said, sounding genuinely apologetic. "I'll tell you what, I'll save up some money, and in two months we'll have enough for you to fly back to Flagstaff on your own and visit Vanessa if that's what you want-"

"Dad, I already told you that this isn't about Vanessa, okay?" I snapped. And it wasn't. In fact she was probably celebrating my departure with some guy from the football team. "It's just... did we have to move? I mean, now of all times?"

"Troy, this job came out of nowhere! It'll be good for you... good for us! Plus, East High is an amazing school they have the best basketball team in the state, they have a nationally renowned academic team, and quite a theater program." Was that really supposed to make me feel better? Knowing that now the cliques were on a national level? This sucked. "We're here! And look! We already have a welcoming committee!" My dad pulled into a driveway.

The so called welcoming committee was this guy from basketball camp named Chad. He was standing on front of my house with his girlfriend, some girl named Taylor who he'd bragged about twenty-four seven... in detail after excruciating detail. "Troy! Finally man, how far away is Flagstaff anyways?"

"Two days worth of driving." I said.

M dad slung his arm around my shoulder. "Well, if it isn't Chad Danforth! Shouldn't you be at school, it is a Friday after all."

"We have the day off of school, Mr. B." Chad explained.

"Well then you kid's go have fun." My dad patted me n the back and went back to opening the garage and humming more Johnny Cash.

"Nice to meet you Troy." Taylor said. She looked up Chad and smiled. "Baby, are we going to the mall or not? I told Gabriella that I'd meet he in the food court at three fifteen and it is now three o'clock!"

"Hey, are you up for a trip to the mall or not bro?" Chad asked, slinging his arm around Taylor's waist. "It's basically the social center of a little place I like to call Albuquerque."

"You can meet Gabriella! I swear, you are going to absolutely love her. Wouldn't they be so cute together Chad?" Taylor asked.

Chad rolled his eyes. "Excuse my girlfriend, she's been trying to set her best friend up with every guy in town and I guess she's decided to go for the people who don't know Gabriella, that way they don't know what they're getting themselves into."

Chad laughed. Taylor didn't. She pulled away from Chad and crossed her arms. "There is nothing wrong with having ambition. She's a smart, beautiful girl and she's... affectionate."

"Yeah, so affectionate that her last boyfriend ended up in the witness protection program." Chad said, breaking into laughter again.

Taylor looked as if she was about to explode. "Can you really blame her though? After that stupid game started no boy was safe. They'd get girlfriends just to get noticed! Did you see the way that David dumped her? Two months, down the drain just so he could get dumped by Sharpay."

I could tell that I was in n position to tell Taylor that I had no interest in being set up with her friend. "Gabriella sounds... great."

"If you like her now, just wait until you get to meet her." Chad said sarcastically. This earned him a slap upside the head from Taylor. I was somewhat surprised that he could feel it through his hair, but surprisingly he could. "What was that for!? And for the record, I'm pretty sure that any guy in the right mind would leave their girlfriend for Sharpay!"

"Excuse me!?" Taylor yelled, slapping him upside the head yet again.

"OW! I mean... not us! Because we're in love!" Chad rubbed the back of his head. "But the guy who is dating a girl, you know, just for the heck of it, is definitely going to go for Sharpay. Like say you got a full ride scholarship to some fancy private school, just because you spent three years at East High because you didn't have any other option, doesn't mean you won't pack your bags and go off to the new and better place."

Taylor seemed to calm down and got into Chad's car. I sat in the back seat and sat in silence, waiting to see what Taylor would say. "But what makes Sharpay so much better than the rest of us? What makes her so amazing that no guy has ever said no to her? I mean, that dumb game doesn't even have a prize for the winner. What's the point?"

"Honestly, I don't know, but it's like... you know that you have a week with this amazing girl, and all you want to do is make her stay longer." Chad said, Taylor gave him a disgusted look. But he just shrugged.

"Okay... what the hell are you guys talking about?" I asked.

Chad handed me his cell phone. "Dude just connect to internet, it's in my favorites."

" is in your favorites!?" Taylor asked, sounding (once again) infuriated.

"I-I like keeping track of who's ahead." Chad stuttered.

"No, what you like are those pictures of them in cropped tops and micro minis they post once a month!" Taylor shouted.

Chad seemed to be shaken by this. "I don't go on the site just for the monthly calendar feature. This stuff is compelling. Like... a social experiment on MTV."

"More like Tila Tequila." Taylor muttered bitterly and leaned back in her seat.

I skimmed the homepage. It sounded pretty interesting... I mean, two girls playing a game to find out who could date the most guys by the end of senior year. Harmless enough, right? "What's the big deal with this game?"

"Dude, the game is the center of the East High universe. Without it, who knows what the school would be like."

**xXxXx**

Chad had convinced Taylor to go shopping on her own for awhile. We were standing on front of the Vans store. Chad had basically showed me everyone who existed at school, from the chess team t the interpretive dance club. It was like I was stuck in one of those teen movies, I mean, it was just so stereotypical. Luckily for me, I'd been going to basketball camp with Chad since we were sixth graders, so I was immediately became part of the most popular clique in the school, this gave me social immunity to the annoying hazing tactic of the other guys at the school. Chad was still briefing me on the world of teenagers at Albuquerque.

"... and after school, everyone goes to this coffee shop called Paisley's. It's pretty small and kind of crappy looking, but I swear, the cappuccinos there will blow your-" Chad paused and stared off into the distance.

"Dude... what's wrong with you?" I asked, moving my hand on front of his face. No reaction.

Chad whistled, and stared at two blonde girls carrying shopping bags. "Check out the talent."

I strained my eyes to look at the girls. One strayed away from the other to talk to a group of guys. The other one set her bags down and brushed her hair away from her face. She waved at a few people who passed her. She looked so carefree... so effortless... yet so perfect. At that moment, it was like my heart stopped beating. Like my eyes were locked on her. "Who is that?" I surprisingly managed to utter.

"That? Well my friend, that bombshell is Sharpay Evans." He said. "Don't even bother though... she is totally untouchable."

"Why?"

"Um... first of all, don't you remember the game?" Chad asked, I pulled my eyes away from Sharpay and looked at Chad. "and second of all, at your old school, wasn't there that one girl who any guy would cut off his right arm to date?"

"Duh..."

"Good, well imagine that times ten."

I thought about it... and well, it seemed about right. She was amazingly beautiful, ad there was something about her... this confidence... this look on her face that she as in complete control of everything. But there was something else to her... something in her eyes I couldn't help but see... this inner pain. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it just looked so... tortured.

"Look who I found!" I heard a loud, feminine voice say.

Before I knew it, my thoughts were interrupted and a small brunette girl with tan skin was pushed at me. "Hi... I'm Gabriella. You must be Troy. Taylor told meyou were cute... but I didn't think you would be this cute. Not that how cute you are really matters to me! Not that you're not cute! What I mean to say is that as long as you're a good person how you look doesn't matter... but you look nice." She said with a shy smile.

I looked up at Chad, who also gave me an apologetic look. Then I looked at Taylor, who had a proud look on her face. "Um... thank you." I said, confusedly.

Gabriella's smile grew ten times what I had thought was her natural limit. She turned around to face Taylor and let out a high pitched, shrill squeal. She turned around, and I could tell she was trying to remain composed... but that wasn't exactly working out very well for her. She was blushing like crazy and was trying to stifle a smile. I mean, after the squeal why would she even bother to pretend to keep her cool. "Well...um, well then, maybe we could do something sometime... like, together."

Um... no. That would be the simplest way of putting it. But of course, I'd met girls like Gabriella before, and just saying flat out no wouldn't exactly fly well with her. "I just kind of want to focus on getting used to it here... you know?"

Gabriella giggled, obviously not taking the hint "And what better way than to have a private tour, complete with your own personal tour guide? Since captain of the Academic decathlon team, I have a key to the back door. I can show you around the school, explain all of the mediocre social circles there are here, show you the ropes... and maybe afterwards, we could head out to Paisley's and get some coffee or something-"

"You know what? I actually promised Troy's dad that we'd get Troy home in time to help him unpack some boxes." Chad decided to speak up.

"Yeah, and Chad already filled me in on basically everything..." I shrugged. Okay, she had to take this hint, it was physically impossible not to take that hint.

She lowered her head. And it looked as if she was about to cry. For a moment, I almost felt bad about turning her down so quickly, but then Taylor just had to open her mouth again. "Well... you know what? I bet Chad didn't tell you about the... drama program!"

Gabriella face brightened. "Of course! There's this amazing program at our school. I've never done it before... but I was thinking of trying it out his year, you know, so I'd look well rounded for my college applications."

Chad grabbed the back of my shirt and started pulling me away from Gabriella and Taylor "Well that's about it... so we actually have to go now."

Gabriella actually starting running after us. "Well, a little known fact is that I have this incredible case of stage fright, and I was sort of looking for someone to audition with... and since pair auditions have to be male female-"

"Bye Gabriella." Chad said and pulled me outside to the parking lot. This was insane. Gabriella was insane. But I knew that she would not let me go this easily. My first day in Albuquerque and I already had a stalker.

**Okay... so meet Gabriella. In this story, I'm thinking of making her sort of a spaz. She has a gigantic grudge against Sharpay and she spend most of her time talking about how vain and evil Sharpay is. She also thinks that she's waaaaaay above everything at East High. So the fact that she's obsessed with Troy should make for a pretty interesting story. More of Gabriella's story will be in next chapter. So keep reading.**


	4. The First Day

**Okay, as promised I am updating before we leave for vacation. But I got two chapters don so I'm thinking of posting them both now since I'm not sure if there will be internet at the place where I'm going for vacation. So I'll probably update again momentarily... enjoy the chapter.**

**Sharpay's POV**

I stomped through the halls of East High, making my way to the cafeteria. I pushed some hair out of my face. I had completely missed the first half of the day because the flight me and Shay took back from Barcelona got in late. But I wasn't worried at all, I knew that someone covered for me. I just hoped that I was in time for my post-European-weekend-escapade. I'd been doing this kind of stuff for three years, I got the hang of it. I had to walk in at the perfect moment, everyone had to be seated, but it had to be early enough so that the talking was slightly less noisy. I had to be wearing something classy, yet eye popping, and it had to make it look like I got an incredible tan, even if I didn't.

A group of boys who had been staring at me smiled my way. I politely smiled back, hoping that they would get the point. Apparently not. The group leader, who I immediately recognized him as Gannon Kingston. "Hey Sharpay, want to eat lunch with us?"

I stopped walking for a moment and looked them over, it was like a reflex, I immediately started grading them. They were on the lacrosse team, they were pretty popular, they were cute in a scruffy way, according to my research they were moderately good kissers, and three out of five of them had girlfriends. I smiled. "Sure, just let me do something first."

"Okay, we'll see you there." Gannon said, and smiled his gorgeous smile.

I started moving swiftly through the hallway again. This was expected, I mean, I had just reached day five with Eric Gordon, and everyone knew what that meant. So now it was as if every guy in school was on flirt mode, 24/7. It was really nothing new for me. Ever since sophomore year when the game went viral, this had been happening practically every other week, but I guess I was used to it. When I got to the cafeteria doors, I checked myself. My hair was waving lightly, just the way I like it. My pink halter top and matching skirt hugged all the right places. The gorgeous Italian shoes that I was sporting looking simply amazing. I quickly checked my compact and found that everything was perfect. I was ready.

I pushed the doors opened and looked at the cafeteria, mapped out as usual. All of a sudden I could feel all eyes on me. I made my way past the drama club to the stairs, and then, made my grand entrance. I knew that at least a third of the onlookers hated my guts, but the entire third was just those girls who hated me because they secretly wished that they were me. The other sixth of girls openly wished that they were me. And the male population of the school wished they had me. I know it sound like I was totally conceited, but frankly, it was a fact. No one denied it except for those girls who secretly wished they were me.

I walked over to the lacrosse team and smiled down at Gannon. "Mind if I borrow you're table for a second?"

He smiled back at me eagerly. "Be my guest." And with that, every single person at the table stood up and moved into a clump, waiting to see what I would do.

I stopped from the bench to stand on the table. "Attention! Can I have your attention please!?"

**xXxXx**

**Troy's POV**

"So this is where you eat?" I asked, putting my tray down on the basketball team's table.

"Um... duh. I mean this is the cafeteria." Chad said with a laugh.

"No, I mean, how come you aren't sitting with Taylor?" I asked. "Isn't she your girlfriend?"

Chad rolled his eyes. "Taylor sits with Gabriella to tend to her bleeding heart. Honestly, that girl is like on perpetual PMS or something. I mean, she's either complaining about something or bursting into tears, I don't see why Taylor feels the need to hang out with her."

"Why don't you sit with them then?" I asked.

Chad looked at me as if I were stupid. "Dude... who would want to sit with Gabriella?"

I shrugged. "I don't know... she seems kind of cute." I said, though I wasn't really even convincing myself.

Chad turned and looked at me dubiously. "You cannot be serious."

I laughed. "I'm not. I just want to know what happened to her, I mean, was she always this insane?"

"Very good question my friend." Chad said, taking a gigantic bite of his burger. "Let me tell you a little story. There was this guy, right? David Carlton. He was on the soccer team, and student council, he was acing every class too. So for some reason, in sophomore year, he decided to date Gabriella. They were together for about three weeks and Gabriella went all 'first boyfriend crazy' I mean, she didn't even sleep with him or anything, but she thought that they were in love. So David find out that he's moving. Poor guy was smothered by Gabriella that last week before he dumped her. But then he decides that he wants to spend his last five days in Albuquerque with Sharpay. He dumps Gabriella and gets his week with Sharpay. Can't say that I blame him."

"And Gabriella has been like this since?" I asked.

Chad nodded. "Yeah... but really, David didn't like her all that much. He just didn't want to hurt her, I guess he figured she'd get hurt anyways, so he might as well take advantage of it." Chad looked away for a second. "But forget about her man, here comes the real show."

"Attention! Can I have your attention please!?" I turned, two tables away from us, the blonde girl we saw at the mall was standing on top of the table and yelling out to the entire cafeteria. And to my surprise, the entire cafeteria fell into complete silence.

"What's going on?" I asked Chad quietly.

Chad turned to me and whispered. "It's Sharpay. We missed her entrance, but she has an announcement to make so just be quiet.

Sharpay flipped her hair and giggled. "Thanks guys. As I'm sure you all know, Shay Thompson from West High and I are planning for our annual party. I know that ShayPay tradition states that the party is invitation only... but this year we've decided to invite every single person from both schools." This was followed by a soft roar of voices quietly conversing within their social circles about what they had just learned. "And we know that last years theme of Moulin Rouge went over extremely well with everyone-" Before she continued, practically every boy in the cafeteria started a chorus of whistles.

This caused Sharpay to giggle again. "But we've finally decided on a something for this year. The annual ShayPay party will be themed History's Vixens: a salute to the most fabulous, sexy women of all time and the men who loved them. So get a costume, get a date and go to the Albuquerque Grand Hotel, Saturday after next. As always, the part will take place in the ball room, but for the night, we'll have the entire hotel all to ourselves. We know it's sort of short notice, but we also know that you wouldn't dare miss it. You can go back to eating now." She stepped off of the table and the cafeteria returned to its usual noise level.

"So I take it that Sharpay is a pretty big deal here, huh?" I asked.

"Only the biggest." Chad said bitterly. "The basketball team was invited to their party last year, but Taylor wouldn't let me go because it was apparently too immoral."

"Can you believe Sharpay?" I heard a voice from behind me ask.

Chad groaned. "Taylor, take Gabriella away from the table...we're still trying to eat here."

"Oh shut up Chad." Gabriella said. "Troy... don't you think that Sharpay was totally wrong for making hotel rooms available to anyone at the party? I mean, they have mini bars! They're all just going to get drunk and have sex. And the way she promoted all the girls dressing like whores last year with her Moulin Rouge theme was appalling!"

"Every single girl worth knowing in school... dressed like a whore... and I wasn't there." Chad muttered. This gained him a slap upside the head from Taylor. "Ow! What I meant to say was... I just wanted to see how good the party was, I heard that Sharpay's rendition of diamonds are a girl's best friend was amazing."

"It was only amazing because all she was wearing was a diamond studded bikini." Gabriella snapped and crossed her arms. "Other than her ability to wear revealing clothing, she has no talents whatsoever."

"You're just saying that because you don't even have the ability to dress in revealing clothing!" Chad shot back.

"Just because I choose to focus on my future rather than dancing around in a cropped top and booty shorts and calling it a workout doesn't mean I can't where revealing clothes if I wanted to."

"No, it just means that nobody wants to see it!"

"TAYLOR! TELL YOUR BOYFRIEND TO SHUT UP!" Gabriella (who was apparently extremely self conscious about her weight) screamed.

"Shut up Chad!" Taylor said angrily.

"Look, all I'm trying to say here is that love her or hate her, the girl can through a pretty kick ass party." Chad said.

"I don't care if its kick ass or not, you sure as hell aren't going." Taylor said to Chad.

Chad almost spat out the coke he was drinking. "Come on Taylor! It's senior year! Try to have some fun."

"The party sounds like fun." I said with a shrug. "Who cares who the one throwing it is, odds are that she probably won't even have time to talk with you. And since everyone's invited I don't see what the big deal is."

Gabriella glared at Chad. "He's been here for three days and already you've already turned him into a brainwashed conformist."

"What the hell are you rambling about? The party is going to be fun. It's nice to know that he has enough common sense to see that." Chad scowled at Gabriella. "Troy, let's go, I'm going to do you your first favor and to introduce you to Sharpay."

"Why would you want to expose Troy to the root of all evil?" Gabriella growled at Chad.

"Because she's hot, as of yesterday she's single, and that skirt she's wearing is about as long as my hair." Chad said.

"You are such a complete hypocrite! I mean you're in a solid relationship with one of the smartest girls in the entire school, and the first chance you get, you try to set your best friend up with a total bimbo!" Gabriella shouted. "But Troy isn't like that! He likes women with brains, class, and personality."

"... you've only known him for like, a day." Chad said, raising his eyebrow.

Upon realization of how stupid she just sounded, Gabriella instantly shrunk. Her cheeks turned completely red, and she started rapidly blinking. "I-I have to go." She said, and ran away from the table just as the bell rang.

Taylor gave Chad this 'what did do that for' look, and Chad just shrugged. This was crazy. "Dude... ignore her, there are much hotter fish in the sea." Chad said, a huge smile emerging on his face. "Starting with the hottest fish of them all."

I looked over to where Chad was staring, and there she was. Sharpay Evans. This was weird, I mean, she was so completely gorgeous, and I' not going to lie. It drove me pretty damn crazy to watch how she carried herself, with such total confidence, and the way she looked at people, like she was summing them up in her head. But the weird part was that I wanted to se what she was thinking, I wanted to know her. "What makes you think that she'll give me the time of day?"

"That's the beautiful part Troy, no matter what kind of person you are, you're with the basketball team, you automatically rank among the best." Chad stood up. "Hey Sharpay." He said, nodding at her as he walked by.

"Hey Chad, I hear you and the team will be playing West High next week." She said, not even looking remotely in my direction.

Chad smiled goofily. "That's true, it should be good, you and Shay will be there, right?"

"We're at every East versus West game. It's ShayPay tradition." Sharpay said, smiling and looking straight up at Chad with full on confidence.

I could tell that Chad was trying his hardest to keep his cool, but he was smiling like an idiot. "There might be an after party, if we win will you grace us with your presence?"

"Only if you promise to make a three pointer for me." Sharpay said, sounding flirty.

"I'll be sure to think of you when we win the game."

"Then I'll be sure to make an appearance at the after party." Sharpay giggled. "Who's your friend? I haven't seen him around here."

"This is Troy, the new guy." Chad said, still acting like an idiot.

"Hey new guy." Sharpay said. "Has everything here at East High been to your liking?."

In my head, I knew that I was supposed to say something like 'nothing really seems that extraordinary, well, not until now at least' and then introduce myself. But my mouth didn't exactly feel like listening to my head today. "Hi." I said sheepishly.

Sharpay's laugh filled the air once again. "Hi, I'm Sharpay by the way."

"T-Troy." I said. "Sorry, I just sort of zoned out for a second." I managed to choke out.

Sharpay shrugged. "Okay, I'll you guys later." And walked away.

And that was the first impression Sharpay Evans ever got of me. The guy who couldn't think of anything to say but hi.

**I really liked Chad in this chapter. Usually he isn't a major person in the stories when I write, usually in my head, he's usually a girl crazy, superficial type of guy. I just decided to do it in a cute way this time. I still feel bad about always antagonizing Gabriella. But I think she's kind of funny when she's obsessive, so I'll keep her that way for now. Bye.**


	5. The Ex Boyfriend

**SURPRISE! I updated again... okay, so I told you I would, but still, act surprised for my sake. I feel like this chapter is extra long, but that's because a lot of stuff happens. So Troy and Sharpay meet for real in this chapter, you get to meet Ryan and Zeke, and you get a little bit of information on Sharpay's mom. Don't get too excited. This isn't all good news. Starting with part one of the chapter. Now here comes the moment no one wanted to happen...**

**Troy's POV**

"Dude, do I seriously have to do this?" I asked Chad, we stood in the book shelves, staring at Gabriella who was reading some psychology book.

"It's known that guys with girlfriends are like, twice as likely to get picked for the game." I hated how Chad referred to dating Sharpay as 'the Game', but I figured that I'd have to get used to it. "It really isn't that bad, I mean, you just have to stay with her for a few days, and then Sharpay will be all over you." Chad pushed me forward. "Just go."

Gabriella turned to me and smiled. "Troy... are you here for me?"

"Um… yeah, actually." I said. I couldn't believe that I was about to do this. "So, what are you reading?"

"Actually, it was quite interesting. There was a study showing that teenage girls with weak minds are more likely to try and come up with ways to attract attention because their personalities aren't enough to attract people." She said with a triumphant smile on her face.

"That's very, interesting. Actually I was wondering whether your offer to show me around Albuquerque still stands." I said, putting my hand in my pockets.

"Oh my god. Are you serious!? I have to go tell Taylor!" She hugged me then ran out of the library.

I heard a laugh, but it wasn't Gabriella. "Well, that was interesting." Sharpay walked up behind me a crossed her arms. "Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton… never would have seen that coming."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Well, I like to think that I'm pretty at figuring people out." Sharpay shrugged.

I let out a small laugh. "So what's your take on me?"

Sharpay giggled. "Well, you rock at basketball, which you though was fun until it turned into a job, so far you don't get it here, you think we're the kind of people that only exist in teen movies, but at the same time you think it's kind of interesting. You hang out with jocks, but mainly because you don't want to have to hang out alone. And... I'm still in the process of figuring out why you picked Gabriella."

"What's wrong with Gabriella?" I asked. Okay... I knew what was wrong with Gabriella. I just wanted to see how she said it.

Sharpay was quiet for a minute, probably trying to figure out exactly how to put this. "Well, sometimes... she can come off as... unapproachable. And I've heard a few complaints that she can be pretty bitter. But I'm glad she found someone. I mean, I don't know if you heard, but she and her last boyfriend ended on a really bad note." And then something weird happened. She looked... guilty.

"She seems nice." I said, just to break the awkward silence that was forming. "She was really enthusiastic about showing me around when I first got here."

"Well I guess she feels comfortable around you... that's always a good thing." Sharpay said, she smiled at me. "You're on the basketball team... right?"

Not officially... but I was now. "Yeah, I am."

"Well, then I might see you around." She said and left the library.

I sat there for a minute, just thinking about what had just happened. "Dude... that was probably the most kick ass thing I've ever seen! I've never had a conversation with Sharpay about anything but the team, and on your second day, you manage to have an entire conversation with her."

"Well it sure beat the hell out of not thinking of anything to say but hi." I said, finally able to verbalize.

"Dude... all you have to do is join the basketball team, and you're in." Chad said, slapping me on the back. And he was right, I was totally in.

**xXxXx**

**Sharpay's POV**

I walked down to the gym, making sure that I looked perfect. I shouldn't have been doing this. I mean, it was practically an unwritten rule that I was to be approached, never the one approaching. It's not like this had never happened before... it had. I met a guy who was nice, cute, and a generally sweet person. But the time I'd gone through a week of dating that person, I figured out a reason to justify dumping them. I'm not saying that I was about to run away with Troy anytime soon... it was just that he was the kind of guy who could make you feel bad for just about anything. And still, I wanted to hang out with him.

"Hey Sharpay." Some guy said. "You free this Friday?"

"Sorry, basketball game." I said with a shrug. I kept moving and made it to the gym doors. This was it. Then I heard the familiar sound of my phone ringing. I groaned. Was this really important? I looked at the pictured displayed on the screen: A blonde boy wearing a baseball cap hugging me on front of a rollercoaster. Okay, this was important. I ran into an empty classroom. I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Pay, it's me." I heard a familiar voice say.

"Ryan? Is something wrong? Where are you?" I asked, bracing myself.

Ryan laughed. "Cool down Shar, everything's fine. I just had a free minute so I thought I'd call."

I sighed, thankful that Ryan was okay. "Isn't that against the rules of the place?"

"God Pay, must you be so boring?" I rolled my eyes. This was so typical Ryan. "So are you out of school yet or are you cutting science again?"

"I'm sort of out of school." I replied, looking around me. "So how are things down at the Kelvin Center?"

"As good as rehab gets." Ryan said. "How are things down at East High?"

"People really miss you Ry, we don't have half as many fire drills." I said sarcastically.

"Ha ha, very funny. but really. How are things?"

"Normal and boring. Seriously Ry, what do you expect?" I asked.

"I don't know... and how is mother dearest?" He asked. I could tell that he was being especially sarcastic when he said this.

I smiled to myself. "Oh... where to begin? Well, she's blonde again, her newest implants are apparently a big success, and she has a new boy toy."

Ryan laughed. "How old is he this time?"

"Twenty-two." I answered.

Ryan whistled. "Twenty-two? I mean, I know the last one was twenty-four and all, but seriously. What if he's like... an intern or something?"

"I just realized that my mother just might be dating an intern." I gasped. "Oh god Ryan. How long do you think it'll be before she starts meeting guys through us?"

Ryan laughed. "Forget that... what if mom turns into a pedophile?"

"That is so no funny Ryan!" I said, though I was laughing too.

"Okay, okay." Ryan said, calming down. "I have to go anyways."

"What, is it circle time already?" I asked.

"Something like that." Ryan said, pausing for a moment. "One more thing."

"Shoot."

"Are you and Shay still playing that stupid game?"

I groaned. "Shut up Ryan." Ryan hated the game, I mean, even though we were twins and we usually agreed on everything, we never quite agreed on the game. You see, Ryan had it in his head that I was going to get hurt. No matter how much I told him that the game had nothing to do with emotion, he still hated it.

"I'm serious you know." Ryan said. "Alright... to mention to mom's new boy toy that she is the mother of twins at least ten times before we speak again."

I let out a small laugh. "I think I can handle that."

"Bye Shar."

"Bye Ry." I hung up the phone and put it back in my purse. Ryan was only allowed to call people outside of the center about once a month when hey got to a new level or something, and usually those phone calls were used for apologies or confession. But he broke that rule as much as he possibly could. The center wasn't like jail for Ryan, it really did help him. It was like an academy... only that all the students needed help. Ryan said that he met the most interesting people there. They had sessions where they talked with psychologists and it was all really productive. I mean, the amount of changes that he went through since he was first admitted to that place were amazing. I remember, he made so much progress, that three years ago, they let him leave the center for a day, even though it had only been done three times before. We went to and amusement park and spent the entire day pretending like nothing else existed.

I decided that I had better get moving. I left the room and made my way back toward the gym. "Sharpay?"

I turned around. "Oh, hey Troy. What's up?"

"Nothing much. Who were you talking to back there?" Troy asked.

"Just an old friend." I said with a shrug. "I was actually thinking of crashing practice... if you don't mind."

"Oh... of course not." Troy smiled.

"Well then let's go." I said. I opened the gym doors.

We started walking into the gym and I could tell that people were staring. "So why exactly would you want to crash practice?"

I shrugged. "I find it kind of entertaining to watch boys respond to the call of a whistle. Plus I heard rumors that when nobody's looking, you guys break into song and dance."

Troy started to laugh but it came to stop. "Hey dad. Sorry I'm late... the front office couldn't find the extra uniforms."

"No problem son... who is she?" He asked... looking confusedly at me.

I smiled. "Hi, I'm Sharpay, I was just going to watch practice if you don't mind."

"No problem, you can just keep her company." He said, pointing behind him to Gabriella, who was sitting on the bleachers with her arms crossed. Troy's dad patted Troy on the shoulder sympathetically. "I'll give you a minute to figure this out Troy." He said.

We approached the bleachers and Gabriella stood up. "What's going on here?"

I decided that I'd better explain this. It wasn't like I was planning to run into Troy in he halls or anything... "Well, I was actually planning to sit in on practice when I ran into Troy in the hallway-"

"I was talking to David... I mean Troy." She said. I felt bad about David, I really did. I didn't even know that he and Gabriella had been dating for months. "I don't need to know what you have to say." She said coldly.

Troy looked at me briefly, then looked back at Gabriella. "Trust me Gabi... nothing happened. We can talk later. But now I have to go to practice."

"It's not you I have trust issues with." Gabriella gave me a death glare.

"Um... I think that I'd better just let you guys talk." I said, moving over to the bleachers. I guess I really couldn't blame Gabriella for hating me. I mean, after all, I was the reason her first boyfriend dumped her. The thing was that I didn't even know that David existed until he asked me out, he was like, ten points in the game and I thought it was a good idea. I had a basic idea that at some point in time, he was dating Gabriela. But I didn't know that they were serious. The truth was that I never went after guys who were taken. I thought that they were off limits. If I targeted a guy, he had to be officially over with whoever he was previously with. But if a guy dumped his girlfriend to target me, I figured that they were never anything special to begin with. Unfortunately... no one else saw it like that.

"Hey Sharpay." I heard a familiar voice say. I looked up and saw someone that I hoped that I'd never see again.

**xXxXx**

**Troy's POV**

"How could you do this to me? I thought you were different than all the other guys here. But apparently not. You're just as obsessed with her as everyone else." Gabriella shrieked.

"I'm not obsessed with her, I just bumped into her in the halls and we just so happened to walk in together." Gabriella didn't seem so convinced. "So exactly what is it about Sharpay that makes you so angry? She doesn't seem that horrible to me."

Asking that question was a very bad move. "Gabriella took a deep breath and forced herself to smile. "I'm so sorry that I freaked out on you... I just like you so much. And sometimes... when I see Sharpay, I start wonder why people like her so much. I mean, she really isn't anything special. Don't you think?"

"Well... I don't know, we only met yesterday." I said, wondering exactly where this was going.

Gabriella's already huge smile grew, like she was almost excited to say what she was about to say. "I mean, two years ago she went out with Zeke Baylor. He told everyone that she slept with every guy who she dated. I'm seriously surprised that he was the first one to talk about it. But it does explain why guys are so interested in being with her. Just because all the other girls in school are smart enough to wait doesn't mean that the school slut should be glorified."

I didn't believe her... I didn't want to believe her. I knew that she meant well... or at least I thought she did, but I'd heard about Zeke Baylor, apparently he was he school's resident heartthrob, I wouldn't believe a word he said. "Don't you think he could have been lying?" I asked.

"Well, Zeke Baylor isn't exactly the brightest one in the school... or the most honest. But it does seem likely." Gabriella said. "You know Troy, while Sharpay was sleeping her way to the top of the meaningless social pyramid of the school, I was preparing for a future. As soon as high school ends, I'm starting an intensive four year program at practically any school I would ever want to attend and then..." Gabriella went on talking about her plan but I looked away.

And that's when I saw it. Apparently, while the rest of the team was taking a water break, Zeke Baylor had found his way over to Sharpay. He was smiling. She wasn't. "So how has it been Sharpay? Do you and Shay still have that stupid rule about not dating the same guy twice? You know how good I made you feel good."

"You know that isn't true." Sharpay said, her voice was shaking, and she looked so small.

Zeke laughed. "Sure I do. Look Sharpay, I know that I exposed the truth behind your little virgin act. But you know you can't blame me for that. Don't feel so self conscious, speaking for us guys, we like you for who you are. And I mean who you are when the lights go out."

"Stay away from me, okay? You know just as well as I do that we didn't do anything while we were together." Sharpay said, she crossed her arms and now she was blinking back tears.

Zeke smiled at this. "Sharpay, hasn't your mother ever told you to forgive and forget? Or is she still too busy sitting on your couch swiveling back whiskey?"

That was it. I walked over to them. "Leave her lone." I said.

Zeke chuckled. "Wow Shar. So you got it on with the coach's son, huh? Let me guess, there are bonus points for that, right? The pathetic part is that he's only been here for like, three days. Isn't that some kind of a new record?"

"Baylor! You've already been benched three games this season according to the last coach. Let's not make it four!" I heard a loud voice yell.

Zeke glared at me and smirked. "Well, well, well. Look's like your daddy came to the rescue. Don't think you'll be so lucky the next time. And Sharpay, I'll definitely see you later."

We just sort of stood in silence for a second. At this point, I didn't even know what had just happened. Sharpay looked up at me. "You didn't have to do that." She said quietly, then wiped away some of her smudged eye makeup.

"What was that about?" I asked after a long silence.

Sharpay didn't answer. She picked up her bag and started walking towards the gym doors. "I-I should go." She mumbled.

Out of reflex, I just started walking after her. "Wait... are you okay?"

Sharpay turned around. "Thanks... for what you did back there. Not many people here are brave enough to do something like that, especially to Zeke Baylor. Ever since he started telling people that we-" Sharpay closed her eyes and shook her head, as if she was trying to suppress something. I'd never seen Sharpay like this before. From what's I'd seen, I would never have thought that Sharpay had ever felt anything but happiness. Bu here she was, trying not to cry, looking so helpless. She took a deep breath and spoke again. "Look, Charlotte Daily's parents are out of town tomorrow night and she's having a party. I know that it's a school night and all, but a lot of people will be there, so it could be a good place for the new guy to meet a few people. you and Gabriella should come."

For a minute, it was like I was waiting for a bunch of people to jump out and start laughing hysterically. But it was real. "Yeah, it sounds pretty fun."

"Cool, I guess I'll see you there then." She said, her classic Sharpay smile returning to her face. "I should still go though, Shay and I have some major party preparations to make." She turned around and walked out of practice. That was interesting... now I just had to explain it to Gabriella.

**So that was a pretty good chapter, right? I couldn't help but feel like I've been keeping you guys waiting for Troy and Sharpay to start interacting. Well let the interactions begin! I titled the chapter after Zeke... not what you were expecting, right? Well I decided to give Zeke a personality makeover... or whatever you call making something worse. Someone had to be the basketball stud before Troy came along. And it wasn't going to be Chad because I already made him the lovable best friend. So it had to be Zeke. Give me your thoughts. Bye people... I'll try to post again as soon as possible. -LL4E**


	6. The Talk

Due to personal issues, I haven't been aboe to update in a while. Sorry about that. And because I haven't really been able to write in a while, I'm not quite certain about the quality of this chapter. But I think it turned out okay.

**Troy's POV**

"Troy, honestly I still have no clue how you convinced me to come to this stupid party. I mean, just being in the presence of such mediocrity is enough to hinder the process of superior thinking in minds like ours." Gabriella said. We were on our way inside the party that Sharpay invited up to. I could tell that she was trying her hardest to convince herself that she as above all of this, presumably because she had never really been invited to one of these things.

"On the phone you said it sounded like fun." I said.

Gabriella huffed, and then shakily came up with an excuse. "Well... I was interested in seeing how my peers interacted in an environment with no rules, no pressure, and no supervision. It only occurred to me now that the whole thing was ludicrous because the answer to my question was simple. They would disregard everything they had ever been taught, then act like primitive animals." I tried not to laugh at that. It didn't take much scientific processing to figure out that at parties, teenagers would break all the rules and go crazy. Gabriella only said it that way to try to make it sound like she wasn't totally excited to be here. I wasn't buying it. We got to the door and it was already opened. The place was a mansion. As we entered it was like we were invisible in the mass of people who were busy dancing around. Nowhere was off limits, and I could see that some couples were definitely utilizing the extra rooms.

"Wow, you guys actually came!" I heard a familiar voice say.

I turned around and saw Sharpay. I smiled, all day at school she was being all quiet. I wondered if it was what had happened yesterday with Zeke, but I didn't ask. I was still the new guy after all. But she had managed to put herself together for the party. "Hey Sharpay." I said.

Sharpay's smile grew. "Okay, I realize that this may not really be your scene, but it's a pretty good place to meet people."

"Are you implying that the people he already knows here aren't good enough? Because I can assure you that he doesn't feel that way." Gabriella said, automatically going into arm candy mode.

"No... actually, I was just saying that he could meet more people outside of the basketball team." Sharpay said with a shrug, brushing off Gabriella's attack. "Drinks are over there, and there's some soda in the kitchen I you're not into the whole drinking thing."

Gabriella plastered a phony smile across her face. "Thanks Sharpay. But do yourself a favor and cool it with the drinks. You wouldn't want to end up like your mother, now would you?"

Sharpay was quiet for a minute. Then she looked back up. "Actually I'll be sticking to mountain dew for the night... thanks for the tip though. I should be going now." She walked away, flipping her hair behind her.

"What was that for?" I snapped.

Gabriella looked down, acting all ashamed of herself. Great, _now_ she had nothing to say. "I'm sorry. It's just that every time I see her trying to trick you into turning into a conforming robot who throws away perfectly good people to hang out with over indulgent sluts... I just kind of snap."

"I'm going to go get a drink, do you want something?" I asked.

"Sure, I'll take a diet coke... unless your getting something alcoholic, in which case I'll take a beer. Unless you think that drinking is a turn off, in which case, just get me whatever you're getting." Gabriella said.

"Yeah... sure." I mumbled. I walked away from the front entrance and looked around.

Sharpay was standing alone in a corner talking on her cell phone. I stood behind her, just listening. "No mom... no, I told you that I'd be home late, and you said hat it ws okay... No! Of course I'm not with Ryan right now!" She yelled into the phone. "No, I'm not abandoning you... mom, stop crying... no, it's okay... I'm sorry mom... no, it's fine. I'll be home soon... okay? Alright, bye." Sharpay hung up the phone and took a deep breath.

I waited for a minute. Was this really a smart thing to do? Probably not. "Hi Sharpay." I said.

Sharpay turned around and smiled. "Hey Troy... what happened to Gabriella?" She asked.

"I convinced her to give me a minute to myself." Okay, so it was sort of a lie, but what Gabriella didn't know wouldn't hurt her... or me for that matter. "Are you okay?"

Sharpay looked as if she saw this coming. "My mom is going though this weird mid life crisis thing. I think she just woke up and remembered that she wasn't twenty-five anymore."

Okay, so at this point, I was way in over my head. I mean I was the new guy. I only had a social standing because I was old friends with one of the guys on the basketball team. But I still had to ask... I just had to. "Do you want to talk about it?"

To my surprise, she smiled. "What about Gabriella?"

"Gabriella can survive on her own." I said with a shrug.

"Well then come on." Sharpay said with a smile.

She led me to the back, and then into a gazebo, at first I was sort of confused, I mean, there were people standing over by the pool, just across the yard. This wouldn't exactly be the most private place to talk. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"I always loved this place. My mom would never let me get a swing set. I think that the direct quote was 'if you want exercise then I'll hook you up with my yoga instructor. Why waste your time blistering your hands and pointlessly swaying back and forth when you could be replenishing your body, mind and soul.'" Sharpay said as she sat on a swing. "Plus it's perfect for privacy, since people can look into it any time they want and know that nothing is going on, they lose interest."

"So in order to get privacy you have to give up privacy?" I asked with a smirk.

"Teenage psychology isn't as complicated as Gabriella likes to think that it is." Sharpay said. Upon realization that she was talking to Gabriella's boyfriend she immediately tried to take it back. "Not that there's anything wrong with her. I mean, she's smart and really nice if you're on her good side, and-"

I laughed. "It's okay... the way she talks about you is horrible, why do you put up with it?"

"Because I probably deserve it." Sharpay said, all of a sudden quietly she looked so apologetic... so not Sharpay. "I did kind of steal her boyfriend two years ago." I was sort of surprised at how openly she talked about it, I guess it sowed on my face because she smiled. "But that was two years ago. Just a few more months and we can all leave the crazy, emotional, drama filled days of high school behind."

I knew it was a bad idea, I really did... but I just had to ask. "You mean leaving the game behind?"

At first Sharpay stiffened, but after a moment of silence, something weird happened. Sharpay laughed. "I guess there really isn't any point pretending that the game doesn't exist, is there?" I was in shock, I would have thought that she would either get mad at me or just pretend that she didn't know what I was talking about. "Yeah... pretty much."

I was barely able to speak. This was just all too strange. "I-I thought you weren't allowed to talk about it."

"Which is exactly why this conversation never happened." Sharpay said with a smirk. "You're one hundred percent right... this whole thing is stupid."

"Then why do you keep on doing it?" I asked cautiously... for all I knew this could be some sort of initiation prank or something.

"Because this is my identity... it's too late to go back on it now. I figure that a few more months won't totally kill me." She said, looking up at me.

At this point, I was able to feel more comfortable around Sharpay... I mean she wasn't half as intimidating as I thought she would be. "How do you put up with it? I mean, knowing what people say about you."

But this one wasn't her trademark deviously-seductive-yet-convincingly-genuine Sharpay smile. This one was sweet, like she just thought of something happy. "You know who you remind me of? My brother, Ryan. He's always telling me the same thing."

"You have a brother?" I asked, sort of shocked.

"A _twin_ brother to be more specific." Sharpay laughed. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

"It's just... no one ever said anything about a brother, let alone a twin." I said, truly stunned by this.

"Well we're, like, extremely close. At least we were, up until the summer before freshmen year. Long story short, he for some reason thought it would be fun to set an abandoned building on fire. My mom got the incident to legally go away, but she had to 'send him away' for the sake of our images. My mom's first choice was military school... but luckily my best friend Shay's dad managed to swing Ryan a full scholarship to this place called the Kelvin Center for Troubled Youth. I try to go up there whenever I can, but my mom usually doesn't let me."

I was quiet for a second, just taking it all in. Honestly, this was practically the weirdest thing to ever happen to me. I mean, not only was Sharpay Evans giving me the time of day, but she was actually talking to me... about her life. Not just the light conversation she normally held with basically everybody else. I mean, I was the new guy. I wasn't even supposed to have a social standing until another new guy came along. This was too strange... but at the same time, it felt natural.

"So now that I've spilled my guts to someone who I've known for a day, it's your turn. What kind of secrets does the new guy carry under his golden boy exterior?" Sharpay asked, completely ending the serious tone of the conversation.

I smiled. "Despite what you seem to think, my life is exceedingly dull."

"Oh come on... dish the dirt. There must be something at least remotely interesting about you." She giggled when I didn't respond. "Come on Troy, tell me something about you that I don't know. And make it good. You couldn't have possibly spent your life in the background."

"What's wrong with being in the background?" I asked.

"Nothing." Sharpay said, but a smile (this time it was her signature smile) crept across her face. "But you must have some sort of a past."

I rolled my eyes and began the boring story of my life. "Okay, let's see. I lived in Flagstaff Arizona my entire life. My father is a gym teacher, which pretty much made me the first suspect every time someone got ratted out for something. So basically, I spent my high school days in Flagstaff being called 'nark' and remaining uninvited to all of the parties and beer bashes and whatnot."

I sort of expected Sharpay to quickly end the conversation and run off to talk to someone else. So you can only imagine my surprise when Sharpay nodded understandingly. "Weren't you on the basketball team?"

"Well, yeah. But back in Flagstaff, people worshipped the football players." I said, trying to suppress a scowl at the memory of the small town obsession with the football team.

Sharpay giggled. "I guess it's different in every school." She pushed her hair over shoulder and sighed. "Tell me about your mom. She can't possibly be as insane as mine."

I paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to word this. "Actually… my mom kind of left a month ago. Something about finding herself or something. My dad kind of went insane after that… hence this is the beginning of our 'Albuquerquean adventure'"

Sharpay seemed stunned, like I had been a minute ago. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. She wasn't happy with us… making it pretty hard to be happy with her, and we were all just sort of stuck. Now at least we can all admit to ourselves that something was wrong." I said. I hadn't expected to tell her this. But the words just kept flying out of my mouth. I could only hope that I didn't sound like a total moron.

Sharpay seemed deep in thought for a moment. But a smile eventually emerged on her face. "If it's any consolation I'm glad you're here now." She said. She stared at me. I didn't even notice that our faces were nearing until I realized that I could hear her breathing. I started noticing things, that had never really occurred to me until that moment. like how her eyes were a deep brown instead of blue like I had assumed, and how amazing she smelled, and how much I wanted to kiss this girl at that moment. My heart felt like it was about to burst out from my chest.

Then her phone rang.

I swear, I nearly had a heart attack. All of my senses were returning, and the dazed feeling of being inches away from kissing Sharpay left me. Sharpay looked down at her phone. "That's my mom." She said, apparently fully recovered from almost kissing me. "I should go." She said. She really did sound sincerely disappointed too.

"I'll see you tomorrow though, right?" I asked.

Sharpay smiled. "Of course." She got up from her swing and began away from the backyard. She stopped and turned around. "I had a really nice time talking with you Troy." And with that, she gave me a swift kiss on the cheek and walked away. I sat there on the swing for a while. Okay, so it wasn't actually a kiss. But it was definitely more that a high five, or slap on the back.

"Troy!" I heard a loud voice call. "I'm so glad I found you!" Said a very drunk Gabriella. "I thought you left me."

Okay, I snapped myself out of it. "Gabriella, I think it's time to get you home."

"But we just got here." Gabriella pouted.

"Yeah… but you were right. I would much rather be doing something productive and useful than being here at this party." Okay, so that was a bad lie. But luckily for me, Gabriella was drunk enough to believe it.

I didn't really know whether or not a kiss on the cheek was supposed to be eventful or not, but all I knew was that was hands down the best party I'd ever been to in my life so far.

**Did you Like? Sorry, no Troypay kiss just yet. But really, its harder for me not to adds in a major Troypay steamy kiss. Okay... bye now.**


	7. The Deal

**Okay, so in a review, someone mentioned the song One of Those Girls by Avril Lavigne. It is really uncanny considering the fact that I've never heard the song before just about two minutes ago. It seriously would sum up the whole deal with Sharpay. Especially because in the bridge, it goes 'you know it's a game, you know it's a game'.**** I never really planned for this to be a man eater with a heart of gold type thing, I was sort of going for a John Tucker Must Die sort of thing, but then as I was planning it out, it just sort of morphed into the story that you guys are reading now. I'd say this chapter is somewhat eventful. You get to formally meet Shay, Sharpay's "best friend". **

**And also, THERE IS ACTUALLY SOME TROYPAY IN THIS CHAPTER!! So read and enjoy...**

**Troy's POV**

"Hey dude... what happened last night? Taylor said you ditched Gabriella and when she found you, you wanted to leave." Chad asked. We were walking over to my locker. "You didn't make a fool of yourself on front of Sharpay... did you?"

"Actually... we talked." I said with a shrug.

"And...?"

"And what?" I asked.

Chad looked at me like I was an idiot and rolled his eyes. "Did you get any action, did she hug you? Touch your arm? Was she playing with her hair a lot?"

"She kissed me on the cheek, does that mean anything?" I asked.

"Dude... that's farther than anyone has ever gotten. She actually kissed you! And you didn't even ask her out yet?" Chad slapped me on the back.

"It was on the cheek." I pointed out, just incase he didn't hear right.

Chad gave me another one of those, 'are you insane?' looks. "But that was Sharpay Evans, man! She has never had to say anything to a guy to convince him to go out with her. And she kissed you out of her own free will. Now what does that tell you?"

I looked at Chad incredulously. "Dude, there is seriously no way that one little kiss on the cheek could mean all of that..."

And that's when it happened. The halls started to part and I looked toward the doors, where Sharpay was making her entrance. Sharpay looked simply radiant as she entered the hall. She walked with complete confidence, she smiled and waved as usual to all of the people who she knew. And then she stopped on front of my locker. "Hey Troy. Thanks for coming to the party last night. I had a great time."

I smiled at her and leaned against my locker. "Hey Sharpay." I smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I had a good time too."

"I heard you left right after I did, why didn't you stick around and meet some people?" Sharpay asked.

I shrugged. "Gabriella wasn't feeling well so we just took off."

Sharpay nodded and smiled. "Hey, my friend Shay from West High and I are planning this party. It's going to be really huge and everyone at school is on the guest list-"

"The ShayPay party... yeah, I was in the cafeteria when you announced it." I said.

Sharpay blushed. "Oh, cool. Well since everyone is invited I know that there's no need to personally invite anybody... but I just wanted to let you know that I'd personally be really happy if you came."

I was smiling. I couldn't help myself. Could you blame me? No, no you couldn't. "So you want me to come?"

Sharpay smiled. "I guess you could say that I'm double inviting you."

"How could I say no to that?" I asked.

"You can't, that's the point." Sharpay said, flipping her hair.

I heard a loud, fake cough. I turned to see Gabriella, with Taylor trailing behind her. Her arms were crossed, her foot was tapping, and she was staring straigh at me. "Excuse me Sharpay, but I believe that my boyfriend and I are both unable to attend your party."

Sharpay smiled politely. "Are you sure? It'll be really fun. Shay and I wanted to end our final year with a blast, I mean, I don't want to give it away, but we even got a performer-"

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, sounds fun. But does that really justify the fact that you're promoting crude behavior and sex between teenagers? And what exactly is it with you and my men? Is it some kind of a sick fetish? Luckily, I'm with someone with more class than Zeke Baylor. Maybe you should have stayed with Zeke, I mean, he seems to really like you for who you truly are. Maybe you two could both get married and raise a few psychopathic tramps of your own. Just make sure that you don't screw them up like your mom did. I mean, one kid is a whore and the other had to be sent away." It was that moment that I truly realized that Gabriella had stepped over the line a long time ago. "What? You didn't think that people talked about it? Yeah. We all know about your screw up brother who your mom didn't even want."

This time, Sharpay didn't smile. She didn't pretend like Gabriella said nothing. She just stood there, her face completely blank. Then a few tears welled up in her eyes. At first, I thought that there would be a full on cat fight right than and there. But then she just walked away, moving in the opposite direction of where we were standing.

I looked at Gabriella. "What the hell was that?"

Gabriella tried her best to duplicate Sharpay's signature smile (which, might I add, was not working out well for her) and flipped her hair her shoulder. "Oh come on Troy, she was obviously trying to steal you last night at the party. And at least now she knows not to mess with my men. Forget about her Troy. She's just a high school slut who will eventually wash out by the time she actually has to get a real job. _We're_ the ones who will end up happily together-"

"You know what Gabriella? This is it. I don't care about who will end up where in ten years, I don't really care what your plan is, and I don't care if Sharpay stole your boyfriend two years ago. You're horrible to her! And I'm done pretending like I want you to be part of your stupid plan." I shouted.

Gabriella's eyes narrowed. "Better to be part of my stupid plan than part of her stupid game!" I didn't even respond. I just started walking off in the direction which Sharpay went. I heard Gabriella calling after me. Something about not meaning it and just feeling so attached. I didn't care. And I really didn't want to pretend to care anymore.

**XxXxX**

Sharpay's POV

Okay, I get that she thought I was a slut. I get how she thought that I was out to steal her boyfriend. I even get how she thinks that I'm just out for attention. But how could she possibly drag Ryan into this? What did I ever do to her to make her turn against my brother of all people? I was in an empty classroom, crying. I couldn't even remember that last time I've cried, and yet there I was, bawling my eyes out. I felt so pathetic, like I was yelling at myself to stop, and yet, the tears just kept flowing freely down my face.

"I am so sorry." I heard a familiar voice say... It didn't even take me a second to figure out that it was Troy. "That was totally horrible of her."

I looked away, trying my hardest to hide the fact that I had been crying. I quickly wiped the smudged eye makeup off of my face. "Troy... I'm fine, really."

Troy didn't listen to me. He walked into the classroom, and looked me straight in the eye, something that people here didn't really do. "You were crying." He stated, now looking incredibly guilty.

I looked up at Troy and glared at him in my best attempt to silently convey the message that I wanted to be alone. Even though I pumped as much ice as I possible could into the glare, he seemed to remain firm in his decision not to leave. He looked me straight in the eye with complete fearlessness. And complete fearlessness was something that didn't occur very often in Albuquerque. I won't lie, it sent a chill down my spine. Luckily, my mind worked fast, and when plan A failed, I switched to the freeze out technique. I looked down and fumbled with my purse and pulled out a compact, coolly inspecting the damage that my crying had done. "I'm fine Troy. I just need a minute. You're in my homeroom, right? You mind telling Darbus that I'm just going to be late?"

"Why won't you talk to me? Come on Shar, yesterday I you talked to me." Troy stared at me with this look... like he was looking right through my freeze out tactic.

I pulled out some eyeliner from my bag "I'm talking to you Troy. It's not like I'm mad at you or anything." I said with a shrug as I carefully applied some eyeliner. I looked up at Troy. "Hey, is this too much eyeliner? I think it isn't, but some people tell me it is. I need t from a guy's perspective though, I mean, you can tell a lot about a person solely on eyeliner. I don't want to give out the wrong impression."

"Sharpay... you know what I mean." He said, now sounding a little annoyed. "Look, I know that you must hate me right now for not saying to Gabriella, but please, at least just say _something_."

I looked up from my compact. "I don't hate you Troy." I said, dropping the act.

"Then why won't you talk to me?" Troy asked.

"Because if I do, then she'll be right about me. Okay Troy? She'll be one hundred percent right about the girl who can't stay away from some other girl's boyfriend." I blurted out, as soon as the words came out of my mouth wildly blushing. Troy just looked at me incredulously. "And now you think I'm a total psycho... great."

But instead of cautiously saying that he had to get to class and walking off like I had pretty much expected, he stepped closer to me. He lifted my chin and looked me straight in the eye with his new found confidence that sent chills down my spine yet again. "You're not a psycho." I could literally feel the heat of his breath on my skin.

You know how in the moments before your first kiss with a guy, you're supposed to feel like your heart is beating in your ears. You're supposed to be lost in anticipation, wondering what's going to happen and praying to god that something stupid will happen, like he'll have bad breath, or try to suffocate you with his tongue, or worse, he'll slobber all over you. You awkwardly edge closer and closer, hoping that one of you won't miss, then your lips touch, and you spend one beautiful, carefree moment of sheer bliss, before pulling away shyly. This was not like that. We were on the same page, there was no sweet moment when we both realized that we were about to kiss, it just sort of happened. Our lips collided together, and the rest was just a rush. I was pushed against We eventually give in to our need for oxygen and had to stop (which –trust me- was truly unfortunate).

This would most definitely be classified as the best first kiss of my entire life. Hands down. "So what happens now?" Troy asked. Apparently that whole total and complete confidence thing was only temporary.

I smiled up at Troy mischievously. "Now, you kiss me again."

**xXxXx**

I sat in my room holding my cell phone. I dialed Shay's number quickly out of reflex. As the phone rang I thought about what had happened earlier today. After Troy and I stopped kissing (and yes... we did eventually stop kissing), we talked. We decided to only show up at school together the next day, that way it wouldn't seem weird that Troy dumped Gabriella five minutes before we got together. Also, partially because I wasn't so keen on facing Gabriella right at that moment... I mean I really did feel bad about how crushed she was over the whole David Carlton thing, and she really didn't need another reason to hate me. And trust me, if I was in this situation with some other guy who Gabriella liked, I wouldn't have given him a second look. But this was weird. Like no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make myself care about what Gabriella thought. We also managed to work in a little bit more kissing before we finally realized that we were about a half an hour late to homeroom. But I'm pretty sure that we both figured that it was worth it.

"Hey, it's Shay, how may I service you today?" The voice knocked me out of my thoughts.

I rolled my eyes at my best friend. "God Shay, phone sex operator much?"

"Hey! You get dates your ways and I get them my way." Shay said with a laugh. "So what's up?"

"I want to talk about the game. I mean, we made it to senior year, isn't that close enough?" I asked.

"Okay, Pay, I realize that your conscience or whatever is finally starting to kick in whatever, but seriously. You can't just try to bail every time you meet a remotely nice guy." Shay sighed, we'd had this conversation before. "You know what I think? This isn't even about the whole 'nice guy' thing like you keep on saying it is."

"Oh really? Then enlighten me Shay, tell me what exactly is this about other than the fact that we're hurting perfectly innocent guys?" I asked sarcastically.

"Simple." Shay said with a giggle. "This is about the whole 'no sex' thing, isn't it? Because really Shar, you know that rule is just for appearance. I mean, I personally break it all the time. So really, if you have an itch, feel free to go ahead and-"

"Okay Shay, this conversation has officially gone too far." I said, sounding exasperated.

"Okay, I didn't want to have to bring this up, but what about the deal?" Shay asked, and my heart immediately stopped beating as soon as she mention it. "I mean, you do know that I'm the only reason that your brother can stay at the Kelvin Center right? I mean, all it takes is one phone call and he's going straight to military school just like your mom intended."

"Shay, can't we just drop this whole thing?" I asked. "I mean, you're my friend."

"Yes, and friends sometimes have to realize that it's not all about them." Shay said, using her Dr. Phil voice. "Sharpay, do you even realize what would happen to me without the game? I mean I'd be just another rich slut. I need my wing chick. You know I love you Pay, which is exactly why I'm doing this. Would you rather be all heartbroken over some jerk that used you and ditched you? At least now you're in control."

"Are you seriously saying that by blackmailing me by threatening my brother, you're protecting me?" I asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. You'll thank me in the long run." Shay said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few male suitors coming over in ten minutes and I have to somehow get my non-English speaking nanny, Maria to leave the house. Love you, bitch." Shay said, and then hung up.

I threw my cell phone down on my bed and huffed. This wasn't exactly how I hoped that conversation would go. I had a heavy sinking feeling inside of me when I thought of exactly how this would turn out five days from now.

**Don't you just love the bitchy best friend? There always had to be one. It was originally going to be Gabriella, but I decided that I needed Gabriella to be the somewhat psychotic example of a victim of the game. And the Troypay kiss was in the chapter. I was going to wait until later, but trying to stop a Troypay kiss from happening is like trying not to cry at the end of the Notebook (I know... I'm a sad, sad human being). I would also like to formally apologize for the crappiness that was the Troypay kiss, I misplaced my copy of Fluff for Dummies. I just suck at the whole love scene thing, you know? Writing stuff about how 'their tongues lightly caressed each other as they moved as one in a mixture of love and lust' is simply not my forte. So unless I can learn to do the whole kissing scene thing, or I enlist someone to write them for me, you guys will have to put up with whatever I wrote. Sorry. **

**Keep reading anyways. Bye! - LL4E**


	8. The Fight

**Okay so, I know it's been three weeks since I last updated, but I think that this chapter is a pretty good one. Besides, it's almost the end of the year and me teachers aren't exactly being sympathetic towards us. Plus I'm going to a Panic! At the Disco concert in a few days. I'm so excited! Is it weird that I love mosh pits? Whatever. So I'm going to spare whoever is reading tis an entire speech on how I hate people who think that Panic! at the Disco's new sound sucks and let you read the story. Enjoy...**

**WAIT! STORY NOTE!: Okay, so I'm not sure that I made this clear enough in the story, but the whole part two chapters ago when Troy and Sharpay were talking about the game was a one time thing. Troy doesn't want to risk his chances of getting dumped b mentioning the game, and I think you know why Sharpay doesn't want to talk about it. Okay, now you can enjoy...**

**Troy's POV**

"Are you sure we should walk in together?" I asked Sharpay.

"Well if we don't then we'll be late, we almost got detention yesterday for ditching homeroom and half of first period. We kind of lost all of our options when we decided to spend ten minutes making out in your car." Sharpay giggled.

"You know what I mean." I said.

Sharpay wrapped her arms around my waist. "Come on Troy, it'll be fine, all we have to do is walk into school. It isn't rocket science."

"You're right." I said with a smile.

"When am I ever not?" She asked sarcastically. "Now come on, because if we're late, I'm sure Darbus will make us listen to her speech on how cell phones will lead to the apocalypse."

I smirked. "Won;t that happen even if we aren't late?" Sharpay just rolled her eyes and pulled me by the hand towards the entrance. We opened the doors. I swear, as we set foot into the building it was like every move we made was being scrutinized by dozens of onlookers. "You seriously go through this every day?" I asked her quietly.

"Wait until you walk into the cafeteria." Sharpay said.

I saw Chad waiting at my locker. "Hey Troy, why are you so late? You totally missed it, the cheerleaders were practicing in the gym and Theresa Clemens fell off the top of the pyramid and grabbed Kylie Johansson's top and ripped it completely off. And all she was wearing under was a..."

I think Chad had just noticed who was linked to my arm. "Hey Chad, what's up?" Sharpay asked.

Chad smiled down confusedly at Sharpay. "Um... excuse my rudeness, but when did this happen?"

I shrugged. "Sharpay will be eating with us at lunch, that's cool, right?"

"Yeah... but you might want to watch out, I see trouble." Chad said.

I turned around to see the one thing (or should I say, person) that I had been dreading. "Well, well, well. Look what I found. The whore and her trophy boy."

I could feel Sharpay trying to pull away. "Troy, maybe we should go." She said, sounding strangely timid.

"No, don't leave. I'm just getting started." Gabriella said.

"Stop it Gabriella, she's not doing anything to you." I said, reassuringly holding onto Sharpay a little tighter.

"Ah, how cute. She's already got you defending her." Gabriella said with a scowl. "Just wait, soon she'll have you rolling over and playing dead."

"Troy, let's just go." Sharpay whispered.

"I hope you don't think that any of us are falling for that whole, scared puppy thing. We can all see through it." Gabriella shouted.

"Gabriella... just leave her alone." I said, now getting really angry at Gabriella.

"I just hope you both know that this won't last. Just wait a week until both of you realize how different you are. I'll bet that you two won't even make it to day five." Gabriella glared at Sharpay.

Finally, Taylor (who had apparently been faithfully trailing behind Gabriella throughout this entire conversation) decided to step in. "Gabriella, just leave them alone... they're not worth our time." She said, but you could tell she was just trying to get Gabriella away from this whole scene.

After a short silence, Gabriella finally responded. "Fine." Gabriella said as stepped closer to us. "But just so we're clear, Troy. I think you're way above this." She batted her eyelashes as she looked up at me in a way that I think was supposed to be sexy (Emphasis on _supposed_ to be). Fortunately, that was about all she ad to say.

As soon as she walked away, Sharpay seemed to calm down a little bit. "I'm sorry." She muttered.

"Don't be." I said. Looking down at Sharpay, and gave her a soft kiss. "Are you okay?"

"Well, I'm better now." She said, a smile returning to her face. "But I think that the kiss may have something to do with that."

I laughed. "Well, just so you know, there will always be more where that came from."

"Okay, yeah, you two. Though personally, I'd love to stand here awkwardly as you two go at it, but I'm not quite sure that Darbus would appreciate you guys ditching homeroom to do some hardcore tongue wrestling as much as I do." Chad pointed out.

Sharpay looked up at me apologetically. "He may have a point."

"Yes, he does have a point." Chad said. "Now let's move, because I have a feeling that if we don't, you guys are going to start making out again."

I smiled at Sharpay. "He makes another good point."

"On that note, I think it would be a good time to start moving." Sharpay said, moving away from the lockers.

Chad and I followed her, but after she got into the class , Chad stopped me at the door. "Dude... how did you do it?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You have your week!" Chad whispered excitedly.

"Yeah, now all I have to do is convince her to stick around." I said, sounding happy, but in my mind, I knew that this was going to be way harder than I was hoping that it was going to be.

xXxXx

**Sharpay's POV**

I sat next to Troy at his table. Chad was telling one of his seemingly endless cheerleader wardrobe malfunction stories, and basically the rest of the table was staring a me. I looked down, maybe the V-neck halter I'd picked out for today was just a bit too much. I figured that this was the way that I was usually greeted on day one, so I tried my hardest to look completely focused on whatever Chad was saying.

"...And it was the kind that clipped in the front so the clasp totally broke, so she had to sit out and wait outside, covering herself with her hands while someone else got her a new-" Chad stopped and huffed. "Taylor, what is she doing here?"

I looked up and saw Taylor with Gabriella trailing behind her, both holding their lunch trays. "I'm your girlfriend Chad, I have the right to sit with you."

"It's not you that I have a problem with." Chad said.

"Shut up Neanderthal." Gabriella said, slamming her Tray down on the table, pushing nearly pushing Jason entirely off of the already crowded table. "Hey Troy... Sharpay. I see you're eating a cheeseburger, well, a thick greasy slab of dead meat simply repulses me. Have you ever heard the saying you are what you eat?"

"Would that make you flaky, green, and slightly rotten?" Chad asked, pointing down at her disgusting looking cafeteria salad.

Gabriella glared at Chad. "I'll have you know that I'm on a diet."

"Since when?"

"Since always!"

"Oh! I get it! Since I called you fat!"

"TAYLOR!"

"Chad!"

"What!? It's not like it's my fault that Gabriella is so damn self conscious!"

"Chad!"

"OW!" Chad yelled, turning to Taylor. "Baby! She kicked me!"

"He called me fat!"

"Calm down you guys." I said, and all of a sudden all eyes were on me once again... and not because of my V-neck halter. I shrugged. "It's lunch and I have a killer biology test next period, so it would be kind of nice if we could keep the drama to a minimum."

"She's right." Taylor said.

Gabriella almost looked hurt. "Alright."

Chad rolled his eyes and returned to his story. "So she was sitting there, the football field, waiting for Julie Perkins to get her gym bag, and you know, people were laughing and all, but it all got insane when it turned out that her gym bag was soaked when Janie Curtis let the shower overflow. So her white tank top was completely-"

"So is that it? You're just going to pretend like I'm not here?" Gabriella huffed.

"Why? Do you want me to call you fat again?" Chad asked. "Because I don't have a problem with that arrangement."

"Why won't you just admit that you're jealous of my clearly superior intellect." Gabriella said, flipping her hair. "And that I can get a date without having to wear micro minis and V-necks."

Chad laughed. "When was the last time _that_ happened?"

"I get dates all the time! I just don't feel the need to broadcast it on some website!" Gabriella shrieked defensively.

"You guys, can't we just eat?" Troy asked.

Gabriella smiled at Troy. "Troy... I hope you understand that I'm not usually like this." She blushed wildly, probably realizing how childish she looked. "It's just when it comes to things I care about like academics, inner beauty, and you... I just sort become defensive."

There was an awkward silence... okay, well, pretty much silence other than Chad laughing at Gabriella, but then again, it was just Chad being Chad. The silence was promptly broken by another tray being pushed onto the now extremely crowded table. It was then that I heard the familiar voice of Zeke Baylor. "Hey Shar... I told you I'd see you again."

Everyone seemed to be waiting for me to respond. "Um... I have to go make a phone call." I stood up stopping to give Troy a long kiss, sort of trying to send a message to both Gabriella and Zeke. With that I walked off, hoping that Ryan's cell phone hadn't been confiscated.

**Troy's POV**

So there I was. Stuck at a lunch table with both Gabriella Montez and Zeke Baylor. Talk about a match made in heaven fit to rule hell. "So Troy. How's Sharpay been." Zeke asked.

I was slightly confused, I guess that since I was in with the basketball team, Zeke Baylor was obligated to be nice to me. Regardless of whether or not I was dating the girl whose life he ruined. "She fine."

"No... I mean in bed." He said, which brought on a rumble of laughter from some of the jackasses on the team. "I mean, it's been a while since we hooked up, and honestly her first try was probably not her best."

I instantly went from confused to seriously pissed. "You know Zeke, knowing that you pretended to have sex with someone just so that people will give you a second look must make you feel like a total idiot. But really, I admire you because you to actually seem to believe that you're the hottest thing at East High, even though everyone can see that you're a total douche bag."

Zeke narrowed his eyes at me. "Look, I know you feel really good about yourself for managing to bag Sharpay Evans your first week here. But let me tell you, you're nothing special. She's a whore. She'd go for anyone, even some random loser like you. I had her when she was fifteen and she was begging for it."

"Wow... you actually think that you had sex with her, don't you? Frankly, that's just pathetic. No one really gives a damn about who you think you are, Zeke. We all know hat you're just another nobody who thought that were smart enough to convince people that you slept with Sharpay. Just so you know, you're not."

Zeke stood up. "Look, new guy. Don't think that just because your daddy is the coach of the basketball team, I'll think twice before punching your face in."

"Yeah, like I'm really going to be threatened be the guy whose only claim o fame never actually happened." I stood up, glaring at Zeke, matching his intensity. You see, at this point, I wasn't really thinking. I'm sure if I had been, I would have piped down a while ago. But this was it.

**Sharpay's POV**

My call to Ryan went straight to voice mail. It wasn't like it was one of those moments when I desperately needed Ryan's annoyingly honest opinions, but it would seriously help if I didn't have to call long distance and hope that his phone was on whenever I wanted to talk to my brother. I was at the top of the cafeteria stairs when I saw it.

Troy and Zeke. Fighting.

I ran down the stairs and pushed through the huge crowd that had formed around the fight. It was so confusing, like there were a billion thoughts rushing through my head at the same time. But still, I knew exactly what this was about. Zeke always did this. He'd talk to everyone I went out with. He'd tell them I was easy, and it would be weird if I didn't had sex with them. Most guys lied, and said that I threw myself at them the first day we went out. Some of the nicer ones would come up with some crap like 'not yet… but tonight feels like the night'. I would always hear about it someway or another, but I figured that the week would be more bearable for both me, and whoever I was with that week, if I just pretended like I never heard about it. But I have to say, it _did_ make it a whole lot easier to dump their sorry asses when day five rolled around.

This was different. No one had ever stood up for me before. I didn't know what to do in this situation. Eventually, it hit me that Troy was fighting Zeke Baylor for me. And Zeke Baylor was no longer the stick thin twerp I dated out of pity back in sophomore year.

"Stop!" I yelled. My voice was faintly heard above the roaring crowd cheering for either Zeke or Troy.

Troy looked at me for about half a second, but in that half second, Zeke managed to throw in a sucker punch to Troy's stomach. I guess the inner twerp in Zeke Baylor hadn't been completely suppressed because the hit didn't seem to affect Troy much. Upon realization that the fight was still happening, Troy immediately pushed Zeke backwards. Zeke stumbled a little bit, but caught himself before he fell. A wicked smile crossed his face. "Funny… Sharpay comes along and the little bitch turns into Gandhi! This guy is totally whipped! And by the schools biggest whore too! You know I never thought that it was possible for anyone to see anything in Sharpay when she wasn't-"

He never finished his sentence. Troy's fist collided with Zeke's nose, sending Zeke falling backwards to the ground.

The entire cafeteria was in complete silence as they watched the school stud pick himself up after being knocked down by the new kid. He brought his hand to his nose (which was now bleeding) and glared at Troy. "This isn't over." He said and turned around, he quickly muttered something to the lunch supervisor (who had somehow missed the entire fight) about slipping on spilled milk and headed straight to the nurse' office.

And that's when I realized that a boy had defended me against the school's biggest jerk. And It wasn't just a boy… it was Troy Bolton, the most amazing guy I'd ever met. And yet, I couldn't have possible felt worse than I did at that second.

**So what did you think? I'm still having fun with Chad and Gabriella, and also with Chad's cheerleader stories. I'm thinking of just having Chad and Gabriella get together at the end (is that even a pairing? Well, there are practically no pairings that someone hasn't already thought up... except for maybe TroyxDarbus, but that's just weird), just for the fun of it, you know? Wouldn't that be funny? But then what would happen to Taylor? Whatever... anyways, I just wanted to say that I don't actually think that Gabriella/Vanessa is fat. That was Chad speaking... not me. Oh and spoiler alert: Next chapter you get to meet Sharpay's mom. All I'm saying is that she is going to be reeeeeeeally fun to write. Okay, Bye for now- LL4E  
**


	9. The Date

**Okay, so sorry AGAIN that it took me so long to update (I usually aim for once a week). But lately it's been like a crazy whirlwind of fun stuff like concerts and the school end of the year boat dance (Note to self: NEVER mosh on a moving boat no matter how many other people are doing it too, when the boat rocks, everyone falls) which usually isn't my thing, but we actually got a pretty good DJ. I mean, because of him I completely fell in love with the song Shake It by Metro Station. My birthday is on it's way too! Okay... so I'll stop boring whoever is actually reading the and let you guys get to the story...**

Troy's POV

I was standing at Sharpay Evans' door. Yes, me. Troy Bolton, the dorky new kid at East High had managed to make it to Sharpay's front door. It hadn't really hit me until then that I was about to take Sharpay Evans out for a date. This realization had evoked a near panic attack which resulted in a frantic phone call to Chad in which I begged to know where the hell I was supposed to take the hottest girl in school on a first date. Unfortunately for me, Chad just responded with a "Dude... just take her you the ravine, that's where everyone goes to hook up." And then he somehow managed to change the subject to something that involved a cheerleader's shirt ripping off.

Needless to say that it wasn't really much help. So that brings me here, to Sharpay Evans' door. With absolutely no idea of what we were about to do. I figured that if Sharpay didn't dump me on the spot for not having anything planned, I could probably manage to improvise something. It was really now or never for me. I rang the doorbell. No answer. Okay, so now was the moment where I could either ring the doorbell again and be the eager stalker or I could just stand here at the door awkwardly and freak out the neighbors. My options weren't too great. I cautiously rang the doorbell again.

"Keep your pants on! The maid is on her way!" I heard a loud voice come from the intercom. It was a woman but it most definitely was not Sharpay.

A small, old, foreign looking woman opened the door. "Please come in, I am Elizabeth, Miss Sharpay's nanny? I assume you're here for Miss Sharpay?" She asked, with a thick accent.

I nodded as I stepped inside the house and looked around the spacious entrance hall. It was the kind of house that you'd see on TV, were the family had a butler with a British accent, and there was always classical music playing. But as far as I could tell, there was no butler and the only thing I heard that was remotely close to music was the sound of a sitcom booming from somewhere else in the house. "Is she ready?" I asked, sort of intimidated by all of this.

"No, but her mother has asked if she could speak with you for just a moment before you leave." She asked.

"Sure." I responded absently. I followed her through the house. I swear, if it wasn't for the fact that Sharpay's nanny, slowed down every once in a while, I would have gotten completely lost. It was the kind of place that my mother had always wanted to live in. She wanted something huge, and expansive, something that would make the neighbors extremely jealous. Not the small, cozy, messy house that we lived in and could barely afford on my dad's gym teacher salary.

Before I knew it, I was in a room (the living room... I think) with a rerun of Gilmore Girls playing on the television. There was a middle aged woman with blonde hair laying across the couch wearing a bathrobe with her feet rested on the coffee table. She had a lit cigarette in her hand and was taking a drag. "Miss Hartford? The boy is here." Elizabeth said, stepping back.

"I can see that, now can you please give me and the boy a minute?" She snapped, her voice was raspy, and somewhat intimidating. She whipped her head around and looked at me. Unfortunately, Elizabeth had managed to leave the room and had left me alone with Sharpay's mom. "You must be Turk."

I cleared my throat and tried my hardest to keep my voice from cracking, all the while trying not to look like totally and completely afraid. "Actually, it's Troy. It's very nice to meet you Ms. Evans-"

"It's Ms. Hartford. Ms. Evans is the bimbo my jackass ex-husband married after I decided that I was done with him." She said, a smile spread across her face. "Troy, you seem like a nice kid."

I was confused. Very confused. "Um... thank you. I'm glad you think so"

"I just hope that you're clear of my daughter's intensions." She said. "I've seen her walk through this place with a million guys just like you. All cute, and full of high hopes. I just hope you know that my daughter isn't looking for a serious relationship. Just some fun before she gets older and is ready settle down. So don't have any delusions about you two falling in love against all odds and living happily ever after."

"Oh." Was all I could say. Um... just out of curiosity, how is one supposed to respond to something like that? Was I supposed to be like, 'Yeah, I know, in fact, I'll bet you any amount of money that she'll dump me this Saturday.'? I think not. I'd rather get her to like me. But at that moment, my witty mental monologue wasn't exactly being verbalized. So I just stood there, with a dumb look on my face.

Sharpay's mom smiled. "It's not anything personal. It's just the sweet ones, the guys like you. I always have to sit them down, and explain how Sharpay works. They never listen, but I keep warning them because I'm such a good person. My daughter is a sweet girl, but people just don't understand her-"

"Sorry I took forever to get dressed." I turned my head, Sharpay was standing by the door, looking as beautiful as always. That, added to the fact that she had promptly ended the conversation I was having with her mother, I think she was possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Sharpay's mother smiled at her daughter. "Hello Courtney, you're date and I were just having a little discussion."

Sharpay's cheeks flushed red. "Mom... I told you to please call me Sharpay, that's my name."

"Courtney was the name that I gave you. Sharpay is just what your father tricked me into writing on your birth certificate. So I will call you Courtney." Sharpay's mom turned to me. "I only referred to her as Sharpay with you so that you wouldn't get confused... you sweet guys get confused a lot."

"I'm sure he appreciates it mom, now we really have to go." Sharpay said, quickly walking to the door.

I was dumb to think that she'd let us leave that easily. "Not so fast honey, now you know I love you. But what the hell are you wearing?"

Sharpay looked down at her outfit. "It's called a boho skirt."

"Yeah, try _hobo_ skirt. Where was that cute little dress you bought on your trip to Madrid? With your Italian pumps, it would make your legs look long and sexy."

"I can't find the dress."

"That's because it's in my closet. Now go before I even get to the fact that your lipstick makes you like you just ate a bag of blueberries."

Sharpay shot me an apologetic look and swiftly left the room.

Sharpay's mom looked back at me. "Sorry about that. As I was saying, I can always tell when she's going out with the nice ones. She always looks so guilty, because she knows that she has to end it with them soon. And judging by the way that she has constantly been calling Shay Thomson on the hour since she got home today, you're a really nice kid."

"Um... thank you." I said quietly.

"Well, now that we have that sorted out, get her home by eleven, and don't do anything that she'll make you regret." She said, turning her head back to Gilmore Girls. Sharpay quickly walked into the room. "Much better, and great choice in changing the lipstick."

Sharpay smiled at me and pulled me out the door. "I am so sorry about that."

"No problem." I said. "Your mom seems to really care about you."

"She's been totally insane lately, I'm just glad you didn't run away from my house in tears by the time I got back." Sharpay said, looking up at me with a smile. "So, it's the official first date. What are we doing?"

I smiled back at her sheepishly. "On a scale of one to ten, exactly how pissed would you be if I told you that I had no clue?"

Sharpay laughed. "That depends on how willing you are to do whatever I tell you to without asking any questions."

"I'm guessing that I don't really have a choice."

She smirked. "No, you have a choice, you can either do whatever I tell you to do, or you can spend the rest of life wondering what would have happened if you did."

"Okay, I'm officially interested... and slightly afraid." I looked at her, trying to decipher the look that she was giving me.

"Don't be, I've just always kind of wanted to say something like that. Do you think I pulled it off?" Sharpay asked.

"Yeah, but really, where are we going?" I asked.

"East High." Sharpay said, entering the passenger seat of my car. "And step on it."

**xXxXx**

Sharpay's POV

"Seriously, don't we get enough of this place during school hours?" Troy asked as we walked towards the front door. "Besides, don't they keep this place locked at night?"

"Don't worry about the lock." I said, pulling a key out of my purse.

Troy followed me into the empty school. "Don't tell me that you're going to go a Gossip Girl on me and throw a party in the school pool."

I stopped for a second. I turned and raised my eyebrow. "You watch Gossip Girl?"

Troy blushed. "Back in Flagstaff, Gossip Girl, Hannah Montana, and Justin Timberlake were pretty much the only things that people talked about."

I laughed. "Don't tell me you didn't just die when Serena told Blair that she killed someone. I like, totally would have like, passed out if my BFF Shay hadn't texted me." I said, using my best valley girl impression.

Troy let out a small laugh. "You're never going to let me live that Gossip Girl comment down, are you?"

"That depends on how good you are at making me forget about it." I said, before realizing that I was just about to start making out with Troy again. "Let's go." I said.

"Where are we going again?" Troy asked.

"Don't worry T, it's not the pool, I would totally just drop dead if I got these shoes wet." I said, using my valley girl accent again.

"Are you ever going to let that go?"

"XOXO"

"I'll take that as a no."

I giggled "Don't worry, that was the last of it." I said. "Okay, come on, I said, pointing to a door with a sign that read 'DO NOT ENTER, FOR JANITORIAL (A/N Is that even a word?) PURPOSES ONLY'.

"So we're hanging out in a janitor's closet?" Troy asked.

"Yeah Troy, the best first date I could think of was hanging out in the janitor's closet." I said sarcastically. "Come on Troy, I would have thought that you'd know me at least a little better than that."

"Well then can you at least tell me where you're taking me?"

"Wait two seconds and you'll get to see for yourself." I said, unlocking the door.

Troy gave me a skeptical. "Where did you get that key?"

"I stole it off a dead body." I said. "Seriously, where do you think I got it? My brother Ryan found one, made a copy and gave it to me when he left the school."

"And you just keep it with you at all times?" Troy asked with a laugh.

"Just incase I meet some guy dumb enough to not make plans for a first date." I giggled. "Come on, this is the cool part." I led Troy up the stairs that were on the other side of the door.

"I didn't know this school had a third floor." Troy said, following me cautiously (yep, he probably thought I was clinically insane by now).

"That's because it doesn't." I said, reaching the top of the stairs. "It does, however, have a roof." I unlocked the last door on the way up.

"Wow." Troy said. "I'll give you this, it really is beautiful up here."

"I know right?" I stepped out into the cool air. The cute little dress I was wearing wasn't exactly made for weather, and the cropped shrug I had paired with it wasn't helping one bit. I shivered a little bit but was distracted by the warm feeling of memories. "I remember when Ryan first showed me this place. He found the key on the tours that they were giving us of East High right after the eighth grade. The first time he took me up here was in he middle of summer, he dropped the key somewhere up here and we spent half the day stuck up here looking for it until we figured out that he somehow dropped it off the side of the building into the parking lot, I had to climb down a tree and unlock the door for him. strangely enough, it was the most fun I had all summer."

"Your brother really means a lot to you, huh?" Troy asked.

"Yeah... the whole thing was right before he was sent to the Kelvin Center." I said. My mind suddenly flashed back to the day that Ryan and his friends were arrested. I was hanging out with Shay at her house, and I was Ryan's one phone call. I tried to make bail on my own, but I had to call mom, who completely blew everything out of proportion. Next thing I knew, it was just a whirlwind of lawyers, court hearings, shady midnight phone calls in the middle of the night and talk about sending Ryan away... "Okay, this calls for a serious change of subject." I muttered, before my thoughts got too depressing. "So, what's it like being the school's resident golden boy and part time badass?"

Troy laughed. "What do you mean?"

I giggled at how oblivious Troy seemed to be. "Well, you sort of kicked Zeke off the top of the pyramid. The poor guy is back to eating lunch in the boy's bathroom."

"Are you telling me he didn't deserve it?" Troy asked.

"Well I wouldn't exactly say that." I giggled. "And it was really, really sweet the way you stood up for me."

Troy smiled down at me. "Like I said, he deserved it."

This was seriously the most amazing first date of my entire life, with the sweetest guy I'd ever met. And if it could get any more perfect, it was a beautiful night. "Wow... the stars are huge tonight."

"Yeah, I guess they are." Troy said. "Sharpay, I know this is probably extremely dumb of me to say, but I think you're amazing. And I like you a lot."

Okay, I'd heard this before. But it seemed so much more genuine when the person saying it wasn't totally ogling me. And since it was so genuine, I expected to feel really guilty, but all I felt was this incredible rush of happiness, like I secretly wanted him to like me... I guess that's because I really, really liked him too.

**Okay so I'll be honest, I did not like this chapter. Pretty much because I am physically and mentally incapable of writing fluff, and this chapter required some fluff. And there were no dramatic plot twists or slap fights or anything. So tell me EXACTLY what you think. No sugarcoating allowed. Okay, so Sharpay's mom was in this chapter. I really should have made the first part in Sharpay's point of view because I had to force myself to cut out all of the descriptive stuff that only a girl would point out, like that Sharpay's mom had an extremely bad spray tan, or that she had brown roots in her hair because she hadn't dyed it in a long time. But I still had to add in the warning talk. So just imagine your average forty year old train wreck. I'll try to get another chapter up soon. Bye for now- LL4E  
**


	10. The Breakdown

**Okay, so my laptop and flash drive have officially joined forces against me. But luckily for you (or unluckily, depending on the quality of this chapter) I have noisy, annoying family over at my house. Not the cool kind who are way nice and let you live your life as you normally do. The kind who just sit on the couch, eat, complain, talk on your phone, and delete your TiVo so they can record the all the episodes of Hannah Montana they possibly can (since they apparently don't have cable back wherever they're from). I don't even know how I'm related to them! I think they're my mom's third cousins or something... oh! and did I mention that because of them I'm typing this from my basement. There's a girl like, three years younger than me (which wouldn't be that horrible in normal circumstances) who my parents expect me to mingle with but all she talks about how cool it is that our mall has a Victoria's Secret in it and how she likes this guy who looks exactly like David Archuleta (I'm not even kidding). Okay, the point is that Because of these factors, I have nothing better to do than write. So enjoy...**

Sharpay's POV

It was day four, the second to last day. Usually by day four I would be sick and tired of whoever I was seeing, and I couldn't wait until the next day when I could just let them go and take a break until the next guy came along. But today was different. Like, really different. I was... I don't know, nervous, mad, and surprisingly, I showed an unusual interest in making out with Troy. I mean, we'd been spending practically every second that we were awake together. It was like we were actually a real couple. Of course, for some reason, Shay felt the need to call or text me, on the hour to remind me that I'd have to dump him on Friday. And I somehow figured that Shay was easier to drown out when I was making out with Troy.

I pushed Troy down onto his bed, all the while, making sure that my lips never left his. I have no clue how Troy got to be such a good kisser with only one girlfriend in his romantic history, but I wasn't complaining. And at this point, neither was Troy. His hands were rested around my waist and I had him completely pinned.

I stopped for a second to take a breath and Troy immediately pulled away from me. "I think we'd better stop now... before we do something that we might regret."

"I'm not really regretting anything at the moment." I said, pushing my lips against Troy's roughly.

Troy turned his head away for a moment. "Seriously Sharpay, I think we'd better stop now."

"Oh come on Troy, just try living in the moment, I promise that you won't even think about looking back." I let my hands wander down Troy's toned abs to his belt buckle...

"Whoa! Shar! What's going on with you?" Troy jumped away from me, looking at me, with extreme shock and serious concern visible on his face.

At that moment, I was horrified. Not that I was mad at Troy or anything... I was just so conflicted, I mean, he actually seemed to care about me, it would have made it so much easier if he just wanted to make out like I did. "Troy," I said, trying to make my voice sound as cold as possible. "If you don't like me, then maybe I should just go."

Troy took my hand. "It's not that I don't like you, Sharpay-"

"Then why else wouldn't you want to... be with me?" My cheeks flushed red. You see, I didn't mean anything I said. I just found it easier to be mad at Troy when I was convincing myself that he had no interest in me, and while trying to verbalize this, it somehow came off as me desperately wanting to have sex with him.

Troy looked me straight in the eyes... there was something strangely calming about the way that he was looking at me. "Sharpay... look, we've only been going out for a few days. It's not that I'd never be interested in... being with you, but I don't want it to be because you're having a bad day or something."

"Oh, I get it. So you think I'm some kind of slut?" I yelled, standing up. "Let me guess, Zeke finally got to you, huh?"

"No! That's not it at all!" Troy stood up and lifted my chin, so that I was looking him straight in the eye. "Sharpay, are you okay? Is there anything you want to talk about? You know I'm always here."

I grabbed my purse. "No... there's nothing you can do right now. I have to go." I said, hastily making my way towards the door. I fixed my makeout hair before pulling out my compact and wiping away some smudged lip gloss.

"Sharpay, wait." Troy said, following me to the door. "Really... are you okay?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for going all psychopathic on you." I said.

"Hey... I get it." Troy said reassuringly (and making everything a billion times worse). "You're nervous about the party tomorrow."

"Yeah... exactly." I lied.

"Were still going together, right?" Troy asked, almost sounding nervous. "Because I had this really great surprise for you and-"

"Yes Troy. Of course we're still going together. I just need some time to myself today... okay?" I asked.

"Sure." Troy said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. I smiled at him and was about to leave when I felt Troy's hand over mine. "Sharpay, I know we've only been together for a few days, but I really, honestly care about you."

I smiled reluctantly up at Troy. "Thank you Troy... you seriously have o idea how much that means to me."

I walked away quickly. Okay, I'll admit that I was going completely insane here. But can you really blame me? In just a mere twenty-four hours, I'd be forced to walk away from the best thing that had ever happened to me. I couldn't believe that Troy thought that my psychotic breakdown was caused by party-planning induced stress. I mean, sure it was somewhat stressful, but not nearly as stressful as the thought of having to break it off with Troy after just five days of dating. Was I stupid? I mean, really, what kind of connection could you really form with someone over just five days? Possibly. Because it didn't matter how long we were together, I could tell that I liked what I knew about him, and I wanted to explore more about him, but at the same time, I felt like I'd known him for my entire life. I'd never been in love before... and I was pretty sure that this was the closest I had ever been to it. And I was scared that after the five days were up, I'd never get it back again.

xXxXx

Troy's POV

I was worried. I was _rightfully_ worried. Sharpay was worried too... I could see it. I mean, I know her. I know that we were only together for four days, but still, I knew her. And that whole episode with her going all sex crazed on me was most definitely not her. Okay, admittedly, I sort of enjoyed the whole thing with her for a little while, but I knew that it wasn't her, so I couldn't do it. Yeah, if word got out to the basketball team about that incident, I would never live it down. Ever.

I was on my way to a last minute basketball practice, and Chad since Taylor had borrowed Chad's car to go to an intimate gathering between the members of the academic decathlon team that Chad had somehow managed to get out of going to. According to Chad, geek parties were like normal parties, but instead of people acting stupid, yelling 'that's what she said!' every five seconds and getting drunk, they trashed talked everyone in school, discussed all of their make believe long distance relationships with stacked supermodels and gorgeous but tortured artists... and got drunk.

"By the way man, Taylor keeps on asking about you." Chad said, taking a brief break from another one of his cheerleader wardrobe malfunction stories.

"Really? What for?" I asked. Even though I knew exactly what she was asking for.

"Dude... about how you and Sharpay are doing, every five seconds, she's all 'does Troy see how superficial Sharpay is yet?' or all 'has Troy been complaining about Sharpay or anything?'" Chad said, mimicking Taylor perfectly. I pretty much had to laugh at laugh at that one, I mean, it was pretty damn hilarious. "I'm serious, she's probably bringing all of the info to the mother ship that s Gabriella."

"What did you tell her?" I asked.

"I told her the truth." Chad said. "I told her that you were hopelessly sprung."

"You seriously told her that?"

"Yeah." Chad muttered, all of a sudden sounding extremely bitter. "She wouldn't even let me kiss her for like three hours because of that one. But you know, she asked for it." He shrugged. "I guess she wanted me to say that you were totally miserable and wanted Gabriella back so desperately that you couldn't even bare the thought of spending another day without her." Chad rolled his eyes. "But what can I say? You're sprung. Does being sprung over Sharpay Evans make you a total and complete dumb ass? Yes. But does that stop you? No. I've seen guys like you before."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Dude, don't pretend like you don't know. Tomorrow is the last day you two are going to be together and seriously, you guys are over. Usually guys can just step down with dignity. But I have a bad feeling that you aren't going down without a fight, which I strongly advise you against. I mean, do you know how many restraining orders that girl has filed?" Chad laughed. "I swear, if restraining orders were worth double points, then there wouldn't even be any point in finishing the Game, Sharpay would be like, a billion points ahead. Then again, the Game really isn't about points anyways."

I gave Chad a skeptical look. "What do you mean by that?"

Chad shrugged. "Nothing man... all that I'm saying is that Sharpay doesn't really seem to hate the excessive amount of male attention she gets because of the game."

Not Chad too. "Dude... you don't seriously believe Zeke... do you?"

"No way. Seriously, that guy is deranged, the week after he dated Sharpay all he did was cry and follow her around. Then all of a sudden, his story changed." Chad laughed. And for a split second, I thought that there would be no 'but'. I was wrong. "But honestly Troy... you have that girl on a pedestal that she will never live up to. I mean the day after tomorrow she'll probably have a new guy lined up. Dude... I don't want to be brutal, but she's going to forget all about you. She won't even think twice before dropping you."

I was at a loss for words. I mean, really, what was I supposed to say to that? Should I have been all, 'Oh, yeah, that's perfectly fine with me. I mean, just because according to you, the girl I'm dating, possibly the girl of my dreams, wouldn't think twice before leaving my sorry ass, but you know what? I'm fine with that.' No. No. No. No. No. No... No. There is no way that I would ever bring myself to say that. Screw ending it with grace. I didn't want to end it at all. But of course, there is no way in hell that I could say any of this to Chad without freaking Chad out. So I just went with this. "Dude, she's not _that_ cold hearted."

"I'm not saying that she is." Chad laughed. "That's just the way she is. She's in it to have a good time, not to get serious? Hasn't she stressed that enough? Don't think that just because she you did her a few favors by telling off Zeke she'll keep you around. Last year, one of the rich kids bought her this Tiffany's diamond bracelet and she still dumped him on day five."

This was different. I knew it was. It wasn't one of those things where I had high hopes and stupid delusions, Sharpay wanted to stay with me, she cared about me and I cared about her. It was just as simple as that. "This is different."

Chad stopped walking. "Don't be stupid." He said, giving me a sympathetic look. "I'm trying to do you a favor here, it's not going to happen, just accept it and move on before you make a complete idiot of yourself.

That was al I could take. "You know what? Whatever man." I swiftly took off in the opposite direction.

"Dude! Where the hell are you going!?" Chad yelled after me.

"Tell my dad that I can't make practice." I muttered coldly.

"Where are you going?" Chad asked.

"I have no clue, I just need to get the hell away from here!" I shouted anrgrily.

xXxXx

Sharpay's POV

This was probably the last chance I had. I took a deep breath a dialed numbers into my phone by heart. I could literally hear my pounding. If I could get this to work then everything would be completely alright.

"Hey, it's Shay. Now tell me, what is your greatest fantasy?"

"That you'll stop answering your phone like a prostitute." I said.

"Oh, hey Shar. How's it going?" Shay giggled. "Are you freaking out over the party?"

"No." I answered.

"Then what is this about?" She asked "How's that guy you were irrationally flipping out about? Are you bored of him yet?"

"Um... no." I answered. "And that's kind of what I meant to ask you about. Listen Shay, you know how many guys here in Albuquerque would want to date you? You don't need me."

"Sharpay, don't make me bring up the deal again." Shay sighed. "I know you think I'm being a totally horrible best friend, but this isn't all about you. I need you, Pay. Seriously, what would I be without my wing chick?"

I tried not to let fear (yes... I was afraid of my best friend) be evident in my voice. "Shay, I know that this is really, really hard for you to understand but I don't just like this guy. I care about him, a lot. He cares about me. Why can't you just let me be happy for the rest of the year?"

"No." Shay said plainly. "It's not that I don't want you to be happy... it's just that I know you better than you do. And this whole love sick puppy thing isn't you at all."

"You don't know me anymore!" I stopped myself before I said anything else that she would make me regret. "Can you just tell me why you're doing this to me?"

Shay was dead silent, for a minute. Then her voice came back, icy and cold. "Because I don't like what this guy is doing to you. We used to be best friends, now you're turning into another pathetic, love obsessed, naïve, little girl." There was along pause, then her voice came through again, sweet and cheery once again. "See you later Shar, be sure to look hot at the party."

**Okay, so, I have to make this quick. So I do realize that Sharpay was acting totally insane in this chapter, but that's because she's freaking out in her own Sharpay way. Sorry I skipped all of the extra days in the week, but you guys get it right? They're happy together. Oh, and I put this together really badly because I was supposed to put more emphasis on the fact that Troy had a surprise for Sharpay (and it's a really good one too). Please, no guessing what it is in reviews because it's probably not too hard to guess. So I;ve got to go now... bye **


	11. Author's note PLEASE READ

**Okay, so I forgot to ask.**

**I sort of have a favor to ask all of you guys**

**So for the party, the theme is "History's Vixens: A salute to the best ever women and the men who loved them."**

**I already have a few Ideas, but do you have any suggestion for what all the characters should go as. **

**The characters that will be at the party are:**

**Troy&Sharpay (duh...)**

**Shay and a date**

**Gabriella (either flying solo or with some random loser**

**Chad and Taylor might make an appearance**

**Okay so, they can be anything from movies, real life couples, books, whatever. If you have and idea, review or PM me. Thanx!!**


	12. The Party

**Okay, so I know that I haven't updated this in like, two months, and that anyone who showed the least bit of interest is probably completely over it by now. But, I have no explanation (a bad one... but an explanation, no less). My flash drive broke a while ago and I lost a chapter and all my plans for future chapters. So like a coward, I started a new story (which is turning out to be pretty good) to try and avoid updating this one. But then yesterday, I got a review from CreeksideLovesZashley and it made me feel reeeeally bad that at least one person wanted me to update while I was just purposely avoiding this story. So I told myself that by five p.m. today, I would write a chapter and update. And look! I did! I also pinky swear (I know you can't see, but I am pinky swearing right now) that I will have the final chapter of this story up before I update anything else. So I hope you enjoy... this might be kind of rough.**

Sharpay's POV

I was pacing at the entrance of the corridor in my house, the heels I was wearing were killing my feet, but I didn't care. I was obviously extremely nervous. I was wearing a bright red dress and white gloves with a stunning diamond necklace around my neck on my head was deep brown wig in an up do. I had long pondered whether or not to dye my hair brown, but I didn't have time to see my hairdresser, and my mom would absolutely murder me if she found one of those home dying kits.

Finally the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." I yelled, making sure that my mom wouldn't decide to make an appearance.

"Let him down real easy!" My mom yelled, making things worse, if that was even possible.

I opened the door, and Troy was wearing a tuxedo with a black bow tie. "Hey." I said, unable to stop myself from smiling. "You sure clean up good."

Troy stared at me for a moment. "Shar, you look amazing."

"Thanks." I said, looking down and smoothing the satin of my dress. "I told you I would."

"Well, you only had a day to put this together." He said.

It was true that I had made a desperate midnight call to my mom's tailor and he was able to alter a dress to my measurements in one day. I'd just gotten it and I'll admit, it took my mind off of Troy for a minute because of how flipping perfect it looked. But that minute ended all too soon. "Well, I was planning for us to go as Superman and Lois Lane, but I wasn't sure if you would be down with wearing spandex."

"You know me all too well." Troy said. "Or at least, you know me well enough to know that if you'd asked me to, I would have totally worn the spandex."

I smiled. Troy didn't seem to want to help one bit. "Let's go."

"Oh yeah." Troy said with a smile. "Oh bye the way, who are we going as again?"

"Vivian and Edward from Pretty Woman." I said.

"I'm Edward, right?" Troy asked.

"Yes… you're Edward." I laughed.

xXxXx

The hotel ballroom was dressed up as a dimly lit smoky bar, the waitresses were wearing masquerade masks, and music was booming in the speakers. No expense had been spared while planning this party. And no one from either East or West High had the guts to not show up. There was a staircase and an announcer (at my request), speaking into a microphone as the guests arrived, there was even a spotlight that would follow you down the steps. "Cinderella and Prince Charming… Johnny Cash and June Carter… Jack Dawson and Rose Bukater… Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton… Christian and Satine… Tony and Maria… Danny Zuko and Sandy Olssen… Neo and Trinity … let me introduce, one of our hosts, Vivian Ward and Edward Lewis." I'm serious, as we walked down the stairs, I could feel every eye in the ballroom boring into my skin. Usually, during my grand entrance, I would be nervous about the most trivial things, like whether the red of my dress clashed with the red of the carpat that I was standing on. But today, I was concerned about the sea of people, all whispering to eachother, about how Sharpay was going to dump her date on the night of her party.

"Are you enjoying the limelight?" I heard a voice ask me as Troy and I got to the bottom of the steps. "I mean, when I came down the stairs, I could literally feel the ends of my hair splitting"

"Shay, this is Troy. Troy this is Shay." I said quickly.

"I'm sorry, I'm only Sharpay's best friend." Shay said. "You must be Troy."

"Isn't that what I just said?" I asked.

"Don't listen to her, she's just nervous about the party." Shay said with a giggle. "I always thought that Troy was such a… strong name."

"Um… thanks?" Troy said, somewhat nervously.

"So what exactly are you?" I asked Shay. I knew she was doing this on purpose.

"Can't you tell? I'm Britney at the VMA's." She said. "My date Jason is K-Fed."

Of course I could tell that she was Britney Spears at the VMA's, she was wearing bedazzled lingerie that was identical to the ones that Britney had worn, she'd even gone so far as to get a wig with two different colors, trying to match Britney's horrible hair extensions. "I just thought you would wear something more… covering." I said.

"Now why would I want to do that?" Shay asked. "So Julia Roberts as a hooker, huh?"

" Do you have a problem with that?" I asked.

"I just would have thought that you would have gone as Cinderella." She said. "I mean, considering what has to happen by midnight."

I paused. "You know what Troy? I need to talk the Shay about the room temperature, I've been here for a minute and I already have cotton mouth."

"I'll get you a drink." Troy said then walked off.

"What was that?" I exploded at Shay.

"Whatever do you mean?" Shay asked, feigning innocence, though by now, she couldn't, and it just came off as cynical.

"I mean flirting with my date." I crossed my arms, I knew it was probably best to just pretend that I didn't care when it came to dumping guys, if shay knew that I actually cared, she would just push me harder to leave him as soon as I could. But at this point, I couldn't pretend like I didn't care.

"There's only a few months left in school, if you really like thus guy, just hook up with him in the summer." Shay said.

"Newsflash Shay, life doesn't work that way." I said angrily.

"Keep in mind that this was your idea in the first place." Shay shot back.

"It was my idea back when it was a game, now, it's my life Shay!" I yelled at her.

"Listen to yourself! It's your life! Why does it always have to be about you? People like you, Sharpay, they'll like you while you're in the game, and they'll like you when you're done with it. I don't have that!" Shay took a breath and tried to calm herself down, probably out of fear that her makeup would run. "People wouldn't want to associate with me if it wasn't for this! I'd just be that easy girl with a rich dad! Can you please just stop thinking about your High School crush for two seconds and just think about the person who got you through what would have otherwise been the worst four years of your life?"

Before I could respond, Troy came back. "I didn't know what you wanted… I just got you a coke."

"That's fine." I glared at Shay. "Shay was just leaving."

"It was really nice to meet you, Troy. And don't worry about tonight. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to." She said with a smirk, as she walked away, she brushed against me, and barely audibly whispered, "The clock is ticking, Cinderella."

xXxXx

Troy's POV

"You know, you can't just drag me out of the party that I'm hosting." Sharpay said, though I could tell she wasn't angry.

"I'm not dragging you, I'm borrowing you." I said. I had taken her out behind the hotel, into the garden, it had been decorated

"Why are you covering my eyes?" Sharpay asked, with a laugh (for the first time all night).

"So you won't peek, you are going to love your surprise and I don't want you to ruin it for yourself." I said.

"Why can't you just trust me when I say that my eyes are closed?" She asked.

"Now, where's the fun in that?" I asked.

"Fine but don't blame me if you get mascara all over your hands." Sharpay said, and I could tell that she was rolling her eyes, even though they were covered.

"Okay… you can open your eyes now." I lifted my hands away from Sharpay's face.

"Troy what are you talking about? I seriously don't see any-" I'm guessing, that was when she saw it, or him, I should say.

A blonde boy in jeans and a t-shirt was standing there, smiling at Sharpay. "Yeah, real nice Shar, I thought I'd get a better reaction than that."

"Ohmigod Ryan!" Sharpay screeched then ran over to hug her brother.

"Hey Shar." He said. "I can't exactly breathe right now so, if you don't mind.."

"Oh… sorry." Sharpay said.

Sharpay turned to me. "You did this?"

I shrugged. "It only took one phone call. My dad knows someone."

"I seriously can't thank you enough." Sharpay said.

"You don't have to." I smiled at her confidently. "Let's all go back inside."

Sharpay stared nervously at the grandfather clock (that was mostly decorative), that read nine-thirty, and after a moment of deliberation, se smiled. "Okay."

xXxXx

Sharpay's POV

A fast paced techno song was playing and I was dancing with Troy, while Ryan went off to flirt with some girl from West High. I was almost starting to have fun when Shay popped up (out of nowhere, I might add). "Troy, I'm going to have to steal your date for a second."

Shay pulled me away so fast that I didn't even realize what as going on. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm telling you that you are completely out of your mind." Shay said. "Tell me, which is it going to be, your brother or your boyfriend? And please don't tell me that you have to think too hard on that one!"

"You're the one who dragged my brother into this." I said to Shay. "If it wasn't for him I wouldn't even be doing this."

"Those are just details." Shay rolled her eyes. "The point is that it's eleven-thirty. And you're going to have to do it now."

"Do what?" I asked.

"Don't play dumb." Shay glared at me. "Go dump Troy. Now."

"You can't tell me when I have to do that." I said timidly.

"I think I can." Shay said, and horribly enough, she was right.

I walked away with a weird hallow feeling in my stomach like I was about to puke and faint at the same time. "Troy we need to talk, come on." I said, grabbing Troy's hand and pulling him towards the exit to the garden.

"Are you alright? You look kind of sick." Troy asked, just barely keeping up with me.

"I'm fine, let's just go." I said, pulling Troy to the exit.

We almost made a clean escape when Gabriella, dressed as Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, stood in our way, refusing to move. "Well, well, well, look's like I've found the happy couple."

"What do you want?" I snapped, I didn't have the time or the patience to play nice.

"I just wanted to congratulate you, Troy." Gabriella crossed her arms.

"Really?" Troy asked.

Then the evil look that Gabriella usually used when I was around started to show on her face. "Yeah... you're not half as depressed as all the other guys usually are on day five. I mean, knowing that Sharpay could just leave you any moment must be-"

"Let's get out of here Troy." I grabbed Troy's hand and stepped outside, out of the heat of the party, into fresh air. I pulled the sweaty wig off of my head, and let my hair flow loosely in their natural, loose curls, for some reason, it made me feel like I could breathe. It almost made this situation seem better.

"You know, she can be nice when called upon, but sometimes I get the feeling that she's clinically insane." Troy said, sitting on the edge of the fountain, it was a beautiful night, one of those nights where you could see every star in the sky, the kind of night where the moon was so huge you felt like it was about to fall on you. The worst night ever to have to break up with someone.

"She's not insane." I said, feeling small, turning away from Troy. "She's right, Troy."

Then it was weird, like everything stood still. The only sound was the water rushing through the fountain, and the distant sound of music playing inside the party. "W-What do you mean?" Troy asked, sounding as horrified as I felt.

"Look , you're amazing… and an awesome friend. I'm just not looking for anything serious right now." She said.

Try paused, I could tell it hadn't quite sunk in just yet. "Was it Ryan? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought him out here without telling you. It was none of my business-"

"It wasn't Ryan." I said. "It wasn't anything you did."

"So that's it, huh?" Troy asked, I could tell that it had just hit him. "You're dumping me, because of some game with your best friend?"

"I'm sorry, Troy." I said, trying really hard to just get this over with.

"You don't want to do this." Troy said. "I can tell, you really don't want to do this. So don't."

"No. I want to do this!" I lied. "Don't you get it? You were just part of the game." Somehow those words were easier to say than the truth.

"I don't believe that." Troy said plainly. "You know, you really don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do." I said, worried that my words were sounding more and more hollow by the second. "I'm sorry, you can stay at the party if you'd like, but it just wasn't meant to be."

"You know what Sharpay? If you want me to leave, fine. I'm leaving." He got up and began walking off. He stopped and glared at me. "You know what's funny? I actually believed all of this meant something to you, how stupid of me."

I looked away. This was wrong. This was very, very wrong. But I managed to totally ruin something great, yet again. And now I was alone. But that was nothing new, only this time, it actually seemed to hurt more.

**Okay... so what do ya think? I know, sad, right? But don't worry, there's more. And don't think for one second that Ryan would have only that much time in the story, he'll be back next chapter. Oh, and I know that this is completely of topic, but I completely changed the theme of the party, it is now apparently, best movie couples (except for Shay... but she's a whore). Only because I wanted Troy tobe able to just wear a tuxedo instead of a toga, or tights or something I read somewhere that Pretty woman was Ashley Tisdale's favorite movie, so I decided to add that in. Plus that was a totally fabulous red dress. Do any of you guys know all of the movie couples I threw in (I know I made that part way too long, but I was having fun... sue me)? If you can, you have my respect. Byez -LL4E**


	13. THE END

**Yo guys. So... I guess this is the end.It's kind of sad to see this storty end. It was my first organized story, and so I think it was kind of the dawn of a new era for me. I think this turned out okay, and I hope you guys like it. Go ahead and read.**

Sharpay's POV

"So is this what all of your parties are like? Or just the ones where I'm around?"

I lifted my head out of my hands. "You know, I always thought that the next time I was you in person, I'd actually be happy."

"Geez, Shar." Ryan sat down next to me. "Why are you letting Shay do this to you?"

I turned to Ryan. "You have no clue how serious the game is."

"I know you're only doing this for me." Ryan said, which made me sit up straight. "I'm not stupid."

"How did you find out? Why didn't you tell me you knew?" I asked.

"I put the pieces together, Sharpay. I mean, you're really good at hiding it, but I could see how afraid of Shay you are. And I wanted you to see how stupid it was on your own." Ryan rolled his eyes at me. "But apparently, you refuse to learn on your own."

"It's a little late for you to be figuring that out." I muttered.

"Well, since you seem to have thought this out, tell me, exactly, what was I supposed to do from across the country?" Ryan asked.

"You know, you're my twin brother, aren't you supposed to know when you're supposed to shut up?" I asked.

"I was never really big in that whole twin telepathy thing." Ryan said bluntly. "Look Shar, I'm not one of those crazies that visits your website every five seconds, hoping that either that you or Shay posts something on your blogs… but I'm assuming that not all of the break ups are like this. If they were, you wouldn't still me doing this. You like that guy."

"And so what if I do? There'll be other guys." I said.

Ryan shrugged. "Not at this rate."

I was offended by that one. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ryan looked at me as if he was speaking to a five year old. "It's supposed to mean that this is going to keep on happening unless you stop it."

I rolled my eyes. "What are you talking about, my love life or global warming?"

"Possibly both. But mainly your love life." Ryan smirked. "Look, I get it. Shay got you through High School. But you don't owe her anything."

"Maybe, but don't I owe you something? I mean you are my bother." I said, looking away.

"I know you're trying to help me or something, and believe me when I say that sending me to the Kelvin Center was possibly the best thing anyone could have done for me, but is it really worth all of this?" Ryan asked. "I mean, do you really think that I feel great knowing that that my sister is taking orders from some bitch just so I can get better?"

I looked Ryan straight in the eyes. "What other choice did I have? We both know that you would have totally hated military school."

"I hate the thought of military school less than I hate the thought of Shay." Ryan said. "Come on, if you're not going to do this for yourself, then do this for me."

I smiled reluctantly and pulled Ryan into a gigantic hug. "You spend way too much time watching Oprah."

"So what if I do? It seems to be working." Ryan smiled smugly. "I'm here for the whole weekend, and right now, you have somewhere to be."

I let go of my brother, and began walking back into the hotel. "I love you, Ry."

"Oh and one more thing." Ryan said. "You have nothing to worry about."

"In what sense?" I asked.

"Apparently, Troy's connection to the Kelvin Center is a bit higher up on the food chain than Shay's connection is. And just getting a call from said connection concerning me, secured my place at the Kelvin Center until the end of the year. Shay couldn't get them to kick me out if they wanted to." Ryan smiled.

I stared at Ryan blankly. "And you couldn't have told me this an hour ago?"

Ryan smiled sheepishly. "It wouldn't have been the same if you hadn't figured it out on your own."

I rolled my eyes. "If you're not awake when I get home, I'm shaving your head in your sleep."

"You think I'm going to be able to sleep without knowing how this ends? It's like you don't know me at all." Ryan scoffed. "Now go before I have to call in professional help."

"You're not calling Oprah." I rolled my eyes, going into the party.

"I can dream!" Ryan yelled, just as the door was closing.

I had almost made my way to the exit before being attacked my ex best friend. "There you are! Thank god you finally got it over with. Now let's go back to the party." Shay grabbed my arm and pulled me to the ballroom.

"No. I'm not going back there!" I said, seriously pissed.

"But you have to." Shay said. "We have to make our announcement."

"Don't make me go up there." I said, angrily.

"You don't really have the power to ask me that." Shay said upon realizing that we weren't pretending to be best friends anymore.

"I'm not asking you, I'm warning you." I said.

"I'm so scared." Shay said sarcastically. "Now get up there."

"Fine." I said. I went up to the stage, were I grabbed the microphone away from the DJ. "Hey everyone! How's the party?" I asked.

This was followed by a chorus of screams. "We're glad you guys think so." Shay giggled. "Now since this is the last party Sharpay and I are having together in our high school lives, let's live it up!"

"Yeah, live it up." I said. "Because this is the last time I will ever be doing anything that has to do with Shay. I'm done." I said, handing Shay the microphone, pushing her a little in the process, and walking away.

**xXxXx**

I watched, seriously hating myself, as Troy attempted to make shot after shot at the court in his backyard. None of them were successful. I cautiously walked towards the court and sat on the (luckily, dry) grass, not caring about the incredibly gorgeous and expensive dress I was wearing, I shed the painful pair of stilettos I was wearing and hugged my knees against my chest. "I never meant for this to happen."

"Yeah you did. You knew this was going to happen from day one." Try said, not looking at me.

"Okay, you're right." I admitted. "But I never wanted it to."

"Why are you even here?" Troy asked.

"Because I've been playing games for too long." I said, look away from Troy.

"Is that supposed to mean something?"

"Yes." I answered. "You know, Zeke Baylor was one of the nice ones."

Troy looked at me briefly, but them looked away again.

"You know, the ones you think twice about dumping. He made me laugh, and he cared about what I had to say. I remember, he would bake me the very best cookies I've ever eaten, I think I must have gained like, five pounds in the week we were dating. He gave me a mix CD every single day that we were together, one for each day of our ever changing love, as he put it. He picked out some of my songs. And somehow, I still managed to dump him."

"Exactly why are you telling me all this?" Troy asked.

"Because I owe you an explanation, and this is the closest thing I have to one." I shrugged. "In a way, I think I kind of ruined Zeke, I mean, if it wasn't for me, he'd still be that great guy. I guess I thought that you might turn into the next Zeke, only if you did, it would be so much worse."

Troy looked at me. "Do you really think that you can fix this by telling me that-"

"It wasn't an excuse." I said. "You have the right to never forgive me."

Troy took a minute to look at me. "Look, I don't need you to come down here and make me feel better."

"I know." I said. "I'll leave if you want me to."

Troy looked at me for a minute, and instead of telling me to leave, like I had fully expected, he went right back to shooting hoops.

I took a deep breath. "Look, I really hate myself for having anything to do with the game, but I'm done with it now. There's nowhere to go but up from here, but that still doesn't change that I'm sorry, and that I'll never forgive myself for giving up on something as good as this. I can't just put a time limit on something if I'm in love."

"Well… are you?"

"Am I what?"

"In love." Troy answered, now staring straight at me.

I stood up. "I don't know… but this is the closest I've ever been to it. And I really can't let this end."

"So don't." Troy said. "Promise me that the games are all over."

"I promise." I said. "Promise me tat you don't think I'm insane?"

"I promise." Troy said. And then we were kissing, and just like that, it was like something in my life clicked, like I was finally in the right place at the right time. I wrapped my arms around Troy's neck, pulling him closer. I never wanted tolet him go. And I'd never have to.

**xXxXx**

_****_

Hey Welcome to Sharpay's Blog

**This is the bitch herself…**

**So enjoy, and check out Shay's blog as well**

**We promise to spill every detail.**

**Hey guys. It's Sharpay. For those of you who haven't heard, the Game is over. And when I say over, I mean one hundred percent, completely over. So that also means that this site is closing down as well, I guess. I just wanted to say something to all of you guys who have somehow found your way onto before I disable this blog and go on with my life.**

**And that is that I am sorry.**

**I'm sorry to all of you great guys who I turned into point in a game. I can't even begin to talk about how horribly wrong it was for me to judge you guys just by looks and stuff. However dumb that was, it was even worse for me to give you guys one week limits, I guess I'm the one who ended up missing out after all. The whole point of the game was for me to make it through High School in one piece, but the only thing it did was make me miserable because I could only be with someone for a week. I know that's no excuse for what I've done to you guys, and the truth is that I don't have one. But, I do know from experience that pretty much all of you are great guys, or at least, were great guys when I knew you. And if you were that good to someone you knew was going to dump you, I can only imagine how happy you'll make the girl who is right for you.**

**And to all of those girls who I wronged. I know that I am possibly the last person in the universe who you want to hear from. And I understand that you guys have the right to hate my guts after what I put some of you through. I know that turning myself into some kind of challenge for guys to leave their girlfriend to chase after was possibly the worst mistake I've ever been stupid enough to make, letting it take over my life for four years is somewhere in the top ten too though. I am completely aware that you guys probably think of me like some self obsessed whore who is caught up in her own hype. But that was never me. I was the girl who knew what she was doing, hated it, but still did it anyways. Which is about twelve billion times worse. I guess that the only consolation that I can give you is that whoever left you to be with me is obviously an incredible dumb ass.**

**I guess the point I'm trying to get across is that I'm done with the game and I'm finally in a really good place in my life. But I have a few last things to say about the game before I put it out of my mind forever.**

**I'm sorry, Shay Kingston. I'm sorry for starting the game in the first place, No matter what I try to do about it, the game was my idea in the first place and I'll have that on my conscience forever. I am not, however, sorry that I quit the game. And I never will be.**

**I'm sorry, Gabriella Montez. Im sorry for the way things worked out. I know you won't believe me when I say that I know exactly what I've done to you over the years. And I know that a simple apology won't right my wrongs. But just know that you will find the perfect guy who you're looking for. And when that happens, I can promise you that he won't give a damn about me or anything I have to say.**

**I'm sorry, Zeke Baylor. You were good to me in our week together. Then you hardened. And I can't blame you. In fact, I blame myself. I'm sorry that so many people will never get to know the Zeke that I knew. And I'm sorry that you feel like you have to act like a jerk. If you're ever willing to admit that we never slept together and are willing to forgive me for being such and idiot, give me a call. I could really see us being friends. And not just because you make the best cookies ever.**

**And one last thing before I go, if you have something good, stick with it until the end and go down fighting. Never, ever, let anyone tell you any different. Trust me, because I am the reformed most popular/hated girl in school who managed to single handedly ruin her life and yet, could very possibly be falling in love. If that's not enough to convince you to fight for what you want, I don't know what is. **

**Goodbye and good luck.**

**Sincerely,**

**Sharpay Evans**

**Hey guys! I can't believe this story is over. It seems like only yesterday I was trying to brainstorm ways for Sharpay to date a lot of guys but still not seeming like a whore (which, might I add, was tricky). Thanks to all of the reviewers. You guys are my ego boost. You'd seriously be freaked out by the amount of time I spend going through my reviews (that I have saved on my email) after I think I flunked a test. I couldn't thank you enough for putting up with grammar and spelling errors that I only notice after I've posted, let alone actually taking time to review (and for the record, I'm trying really hard to say this without sounding like I think I'm some super-popular absurdly talented writer... which I'm probably not). You guys rock. Bye for now, and keep an eye out for my other stuff - LL4E**


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